Asian Conservation Company (ACC)

The project will support the incremental costs of a new approach to mobilizing private capital and grant funding to help conserve new and existing marine protected areas (MPAs) at six key sites in the Philippines. It is innovative in the way that a holding company is set up. Essentially, private investors are willing to take lower returns on their investment on ACC in exchange for funding biodiversity conservation. It will provide funds for the first biodiversity oriented holding company which will become a long-term (up to 50 years) shareholder in companies that are strategically located in sectors and regions within the Philippines which allow it to leverage significant benefits for biodiversity. The investment company will work in tandem with a parallel foundation, the Asian Conservation Foundation (ACF) in order to provide technical assistance and funding for conservation activities at key marine and coastal sites. The project will address two major conservation objectives: (a) Long-term conservation of globally significant marine and coastal biodiversity, and (b) demonstration of a globally replicable model. Examples of expected conservation activities are conservation management, marine enforcement, information-education-communication, sustainable livelihoods, biodiversity research and monitoring, and development of institutional and financial sustainability mechanisms. Initial sites include: El Nido, Palawan; Sangay Reserve, Geros Occidental; Asid Gulf, Masbate; North Guimaras Strait; Estancia and Concepcion, North iloilo, and Bantayan Island, Cebu.