WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS), held a hearing today on “Advancing Security and Prosperity Through International Conservation” to discuss the importance of strengthening U.S. foreign assistance for conservation. U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Deputy Assistant Administrator and Chief Climate Officer Gillian Caldwell, African Wildlife Foundation President and CEO Kaddu Sebunya, and Bezos Earth Fund President and CEO Dr. Andrew Steer testified.

At the hearing, Senator Coons discussed the importance of the government’s role in supporting international conservation while emphasizing the need to improve collaboration with the private sector, as proposed in his bipartisan bill, the U.S. Foundation for International Conservation Act. The bill, which he introduced with SFOPS Ranking Member Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), would establish a foundation to support local communities around the world through public-private partnerships focused on effectively managing critical and conserved areas, providing long-term benefits for the planet, economic and human development, and security.

Senator Coons is also a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Senator Chris Coons: I think this is a critical topic: critical for the United States’ place in the world, critical for the relationship between the private sector and philanthropy and government. Those who have worked on, read about, or visited conservation programs, know what progress on conservation means for indigenous communities, for efforts to curb wildlife trafficking and illicit financing, to improve security, and for the benefit of livelihoods across the globe, including here in the United States. That is why there is robust, bipartisan, and bicameral support for that. Like many members on this committee, I’ve had the opportunity to visit protected and conserved spaces around the world, from Kenya and Mozambique and Rwanda, to Namibia, Colombia, and Ecuador. I have done them in [partnership] with my colleagues, in [partnership] with nonprofit organizations, and I’ve seen remarkable and impressive examples of what conservation that is human-centered, that is done in close coordination with indigenous communities, and that is well-planned and well-accounted for, can accomplish. We are losing the Earth’s most vital spaces, the most remarkable parts of Creation, at an alarming rate because of logging, rapid human population expansion, the demand for agricultural space, for charcoal, [from] wildfires, because of a changing climate. This is in part because the vast majority of gazetted parks, of notionally protected spaces, are underfunded – leaving lands at risk of degradation and wildlife at risk from poaching. Poaching – which as I’ve demonstrated in hearings now many years ago to lay the groundwork for the END Wildlife Trafficking Act – funds armed groups and global criminal networks that threaten national security, both here and in many countries around the world. USAID and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have long been critical partners in addressing conservation challenges, for which Senator Graham and I have worked to increase and sustain funding through this subcommittee over many years. We also recognize governments cannot possibly address this problem alone. I’m encouraged [that] over recent years, we’ve seen significant and growing commitments from philanthropic and private-sector actors to support transnational conservation.

I’m looking forward to hearing first about how USAID has applied lessons learned from its long history working on conservation, and how we can strengthen such efforts, including in partnership with the private sector. Senator Graham and I, along with a bipartisan and bicameral group of my colleagues, have proposed legislation to leverage these philanthropic commitments: the U.S. Foundation for International Conservation Act. This legislation would fund new public-private partnerships for the long-term management of protected and conserved areas, catalyzing substantial additional private investment with a sustained, ongoing annual amount of additional public financing. We’ll discuss that legislation today, and other steps we can be taking to advance our global conservation goals, in more detail.