Press Releases

Ford Foundation Celebrates the Work of Grantees Finding Innovative Ways to Protect the Environment

NEW YORK, June 4, 2007—To coincide with World Environment Day on June 5, the Ford Foundation is proud to celebrate grantees who are finding innovative ways to protect the environment, whether it be using natural resources to promote economic development or tackling environmental pollution to safeguard human rights.

The Ford Foundation has been working on environmental issues for more than two decades. Our efforts in this area focus on two broad strategies. The first is to find ways to use natural resources to bring economic and social benefits to the people living near them. The foundation's support for eco-tourism programs in Africa, for example, has helped generate new jobs for local communities while simultaneously protecting the irreplaceable environment that surrounds them. Work on community forestry in Indonesia, China, India, Mexico and Guatemala has shown that community economic advancement can be linked to the social and environmental benefits of sustainable forest management. These programs provide a critical economic incentive to protect the environment, a motivating factor greatly increasing their sustainability and potential to be brought to scale.

Ford also funds efforts to address the disproportionate impact of environmental pollution on people of color and the poor. These "environmental justice" initiatives help ensure that people have access to accurate information about the environmental health threats their families may face. One program, for example, provides legal services for residents whose health is imperiled by nearby industrial facilities. Foundation efforts also help give community members a voice in civic and policy discussions about improving the local environment and the public health of their neighborhoods.

All of these efforts build on the Ford Foundation's mission to reduce poverty and injustice, advance human achievement and strengthen democratic values.

Examples of our grantees' environmental work include:

Conservation Fund
Arlington, VA
A longtime Ford partner, the Conservation Fund is using a $400,000 grant to spread the word about community ownership of forests and tackle issues of rural poverty in North Carolina. Its Resourceful Communities program is working with communities and grassroots leaders to develop a forest management plan that protects forest lands from large developers.
www.resourcefulcommunities.org

Association of Forestry Communities of Peten (ACOFOP)
Peten, Guatemala
ACOFOP is a federation of 22 community organizations that has been supporting the areas surrounding the Maya Biosphere Reserve, in Peten, Guatemala, since 1996. With a recent grant of $300,000, ACOFOP will continue to assist organizations with the management of their forest resources and will build on such recent successes as the nearly 500,000 hectares of forest under timber production that they helped get certified as sustainably managed.

Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health
New York, NY
Created in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita through the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the Gulf Coast Fund will use a $650,000 grant to engage and empower displaced residents in the sustainable and equitable rebuilding of the Gulf Coast region.
www.rockpa.org/special_programs/gulf-coast-fund

West Harlem Environmental Action (WE ACT)
New York, NY
The first environmental justice organization in New York City, and one of the first environmental justice organization's in New York State to be run by people of color, WE ACT will use a $250,000 grant to engage residents in community organization, education, advocacy and public policy surrounding sustainable development.
www.weact.org

The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has been a resource for innovative people and institutions worldwide, guided by its goals of strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation and advancing human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Russia.