Our Work

The ICONS team has collectively worked in more than 75 countries to provide expert coaching, planning, training, evaluation, and design and delivery services to a wide range of groups ranging from multinational lending institutions to NGOs to government ministries to private industry to indigenous coalitions. Some of our leading projects include:

Conservation Trust Funds and Debt Conversion

Buffalo Nations Grassland Alliance (WWF)

Our work with a coalition of 15 Native Nations in Montana and the Dakotas led to a comprehensive feasibility analysis and action plan for a conservation trust to support native livelihoods, small businesses, and native-led restoration and conservation of grassland ecosystems in the Northern Great Plains.

Western Indian Ocean (EU-WCS)

We worked with a coalition of government, private sector, and NGO representatives from eight countries in the Western Indian Ocean region to design, finance, and implement a conservation trust fund to protect coastal and marine biodiversity and mitigate the impacts from climate change. Our experts helped develop the legal and governance framework, administrative and operational procedures, and the financial planning and asset management strategy.

Cuba (The Ocean Foundation)

We provide technical support and training for members of Cuba's protected area authority and local and regional NGOs to develop a new conservation trust fund to balance new business developments with the management and finance needs for Cuba's marine protected areas.

Pan-Africa (African Wildlife Foundation)

ICONS developed a feasibility assessment and strategic action plan for the development of an African-led independent trust fund dedicated to eliminating the financial gaps constraining the management and expansion of Africa's most threatened protected and conserved areas.

Okavango Delta — Botswana, Namibia, and Angola (USAID)

ICONS worked with leading practitioners from the Okavango River Basin Commission to establish and guide the implementation of a tri-national trust fund to support sustainable infrastructure development, climate resilience, and biodiversity conservation across the vast river basin connecting Angola, Namibia, and Botswana in Southern Africa.

The Bahamas (IADB)

A blue bond built from the restructure of foreign debt is providing sustainable long-term finance and investments to support coastal and marine conservation in the Bahamas. Our work provided technical and advisory support to the national government and a national conservation trust leading this innovative conservation finance strategy.

Peru and Namibia (IUCN)

We led the development and implementation of an IUCN Finance Incubator Initiative (INC) to support a long-term conservation finance strategy for Cordillera Azul National Park in northeastern Peru, and a private-land conservancy engaging a coalition of private landowners in rural Namibia. Our work included training and capacity building for selected incubator grant recipients to build financial mechanisms to support improved resource use, public and private protected area management, and biodiversity conservation.

Barbados (IADB)

We worked with the Inter-American Development Bank and the Government of Barbados to establish and capacitate a new national conservation trust fund to manage, receive, and disburse funds from a debt-for-nature conversion.

Protected Area Management and the Blue Economy

Egypt (UNDP-GFCR)

ICONS is working with a broad stakeholder community to establish the governance, strategic management, operational, and finance foundations needed for effective management and private sector engagement in Egypt's newly declared Great Fringing Reef Protected Area, to conserve a 2,000-kilometer reach of the unique Red Sea coral ecosystems.

Jordan (UNDP-GFCR)

We worked through the Global Fund for Coral Reefs and UNDP to establish a blue economy incubator and develop investment opportunities for impact, scaling, and replication in the Gulf of Aqaba, a newly declared UNESCO World Heritage site. This included opportunities to strengthen local and national policies to support reef-friendly investments; a prioritized pipeline of potential investable projects; and opportunities for impactful large-scale investments from the GFCR Investment Fund.

Canada (Coastal First Nations / Nanwakolas Council)

We worked from the vision and strategy developed by the Coastal First Nations Marine Finance Working Group (MFWG) and Coast Solutions Task Force (CSTF) to develop a sustainable finance strategy in support of the implementation of North America's first large-scale Indigenous-led marine protected area network, across the unique and globally significant Great Bear Sea. The team's recommendations contributed to a road map to capitalize and deliver the needed infrastructure, including trained and empowered people, equipment and technology, transport, and communications.

Mexico (KfW)

ICONS worked with Mexico's Protected Area Authority to help develop a financial instrument to support the conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity and protected areas. Our team led a participatory process to produce a road map to integrate the financial instrument within Mexico's legal and policy framework.

Strategic Conservation Planning

Western Indian Ocean (WIOMSA)

The ICONS team facilitated the development of an innovative strategic plan and business plan to guide the work of the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA), the leading marine science institution serving east and south African and Indian Ocean nations.

Pan-Africa (USAID)

Lessons learned from actions carried out to combat wildlife crimes provided the foundation for a comprehensive strategy to strengthen institutions and build financial sustainability for anti-poaching task force teams in East and Southern Africa. The outcomes from our work aimed to ensure task force teams have the institutional and financial support needed to fulfill their mandate of effectively disrupting wildlife crimes at national and trans-boundary landscape scale, and disrupting the supply and demand sides of the illegal wildlife trade chain.

New York, USA (Rensselaer Land Trust)

The ICONS team developed a comprehensive conservation plan for the Rensselaer Land Trust, a private land conservation trust in the Adirondacks region of New York State.

Global (UNDP BIOFIN)

Our experts are working with the UN Development Programme's Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) to develop conservation finance tools and instruments, and guidance and training materials to support the implementation of the BIOFIN initiative in 31 countries.

Environmental Governance and Community Partnerships

Cambodia (USAID)

The ICONS team worked with a coalition from government ministries, civil society organizations, and local and international NGOs to help revise Cambodia's National Natural Resource and Environmental Code, including the development of a decentralization strategy and comparative regional case studies to guide code implementation.

Latin America (IADB)

ICONS specialists led an assessment for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to identify regional transboundary conservation opportunities throughout Latin America and the Caribbean region, to complement large-scale infrastructure investments such as the Initiative for the Integration of Regional South America Infrastructure (IIRSA). Our innovative planning model allows stakeholders to select and prioritize transboundary conservation investments in key regional sites.

Panama (Native Future)

We developed a financial strategy and organizational strengthening approach to enhance the work of Native Future, an NGO dedicated to assisting indigenous peoples to protect and restore their traditional ecosystems.

Guinea and Sierra Leone (JGI)

In collaboration with the Jane Goodall Institute, we worked with government, NGO, CBO, and private business leaders from Guinea and Sierra Leone to build a conservation fund and community-driven livelihoods program to support public and private protected area management and biodiversity conservation. We trained government authorities, financial institutions, and community leaders in conservation enterprise development, and led the development and implementation of enterprise initiatives to support local organizations and businesses.