PPI Partners : the MAVA Foundation
MAVA, a family foundation for nature conservation
MAVA was born of the passion, vision and adventure of one man, Dr. Luc Hoffmann. Created in 1994 to support the conservation of emblematic sites like Camargue and Doñana (Spain), MAVA has gradually become a professional foundation and a major donor for conservation in the world. The foundation is now run by the children of Dr. Luc Hoffmann (his son André is the President) and has an annual budget of about CHF 70 million allocated to projects carried by various implementing partners.
MAVA’s mission is to conserve biodiversity for the benefit of people and nature by funding, mobilizing and strengthening its partners and the conservation community. The Foundation’s activities are spread across four thematic programs in the Mediterranean, West Africa, Switzerland and Sustainable Economy.
The MAVA Foundation is in its last phase of activity and is in a period of transition: MAVA has planned to stop financing in 2022.
The transition of the foundation
MAVA ensures the projects impacts are sustainable, and that the project holders can continue their actions while having freed themselves from the financial support of the MAVA when it finishes its last strategic cycle in 2022. This philosophy models its approach – it is reflected directly in the strategies of the programs and through the activities of the transversal unit Impact and Sustainability which works to support certain key partners from an organizational point of view.
For a dynamic and committed civil society
The sustainability of nature protection activities involves, among other things, a dynamic, innovative civil society committed to conservation. In this perspective, the existence of small grants operating at the national or regional level is fundamental. And these types of grants are all the more useful as they offer, in addition to funding, capacity support activities for project leaders in their administrative and implementation tasks. This is why MAVA, along with the French GEF, is committed to the current extension of the PPI implemented by the French IUCN Committee until mid-2021 with a new call for proposals including new countries in West Africa (Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone and Cape Verde). In addition to providing funding, MAVA is also involved in the joint reflection that brings together the IUCN French Committee, CEPF, IUCN Netherland and other partners around issues of support for young civil society organizations.
Feel free to explore the MAVA website or follow us on Twitter !