At DOB Ecology, our vision is a healthy planet where biodiversity, ecosystems and people thrive. 

Our mission is to support partners and projects that protect and restore threatened ecosystems and biodiversity in a way that (re)builds the conditions for resilient livelihoods of local communities. 

Our priorities for funding are:

• Conservation and restoration of forest and wetland landscapes in South America and Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Programmes that achieve tangible results on the ground, carried-out in a way that benefits and builds support of local people for conservation.
• Research that addresses challenges faced in conservation management and builds capacity in the countries where the research takes place.

Other characteristics that we look for in programmes include interventions that protect, manage, restore or connect areas of high biodiversity importance, that contribute to a landscape perspective, and build capacity of conservation organizations. 

Although we are long-term oriented, we expect programme interventions to be designed to become (largely) self-sustaining once the grant period has been completed. 

We consider it a pre-condition that our partners respect and actively safeguard the rights, needs, traditional knowledge and practices of Indigenous people and local communities.

How we work

We aim to maintain a portfolio of about 25 programmes and accept proposals by invitation only.

We strive to provide funding for periods of up to 10 years with formal commitments made in phases of several years. The size of grants we provide depend on the programme and the capacity of the recipient organization. 

We understand that it is important to support the organizational development of partner organizations, as well as tangible nature conservation action. 

Funding decisions are taken by our (volunteer) Board on behalf of the foundation. The preparation of new programmes and the follow-up with partners is carried out by the DOB Ecology staff led by its Director. 

A due diligence process of new organizations is undertaken before a funding proposal is considered by our Board for approval.