CTI Trust Fund seen as one sustainable financing for CTI’s marine biodiversity conservation efforts

2 December 2021 – “CTI- We need to develop and implement a sustainable CTI-CFF financial mechanism to provide sustainable financing for our marine biodiversity conservation as well as finance RPOA 2.0 and the long-term costs of the Coral Triangle MPA System. The CTI Trust Fund could help mobilize large amount of fundings from international donors and private sectors to help attain the goals, objectives and targets of CTI-CFF and RPOA 2.0.”

This was the one of the important messages conveyed by the Mr. T.B.H Witjaksono Adji, Chair of the CTI-CFF Financial Resources Working Group (FRWG) and Director for Asia-Pacific and Africa Intra-Regional and Inter-Regional Cooperation of Indonesia Ministry of Foreign Affairs that was read by his representative Mr. Raden Wisnu Sindhutrisno during the virtual CTI-CFF Trust Fund Workshop on 1-2 December 2021.

Mr Adji shared that in the concluded UN COP26 Summit in Glasglow, the ocean was incorporated into the UN climate change regime, which clearly shows the intangible links between the ocean, climate and biodiversity and the need to address them cooperatively in regional and international climate biodiversity dialogues and processes.  “We need to protect and save our marine protected areas and support it by appropriate financial contribution,” Mr Adji said.

He commended the efforts of the Regional Secretariat of CTI-CFF  and the members of the Technical Committee of CTI-CFF Trust Fund as well as the expert group from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) for initiating and going through the process of the establishment of the CTI-CFF Trust Fund.

The virtual CTI-CFF Trust Fund workshop highlighted presentations on the CTI Trust Fund Concept which incudes the value proposition, mission and strategy as well as planning for design and launch. Participation were also provided with insights about the Caribbean Challenge Initiative and KEHATI Trust Fund of Indonesia.

At the workshop, participants also discussed branding concept, resource mobilization, stakeholder and beneficiary mapping during the breakout group session.

The virtual workshop was hosted by the CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat in collaboration with the

Technical Committee for establishment of a Regional Conservation Trust Fund and supported by the WCS and CFA  with financial support by the European Union (EU) and the German Development Bank (KfW).