Revitalising
bio-cultural
heritage

In Nepal, Rajeev also witnessed the commodification of land, and the consequent accelerating pace of land grabbing and fragmentation with the advent of haphazard roads into mountains. He saw firsthand how land grabbing,conversion, and fragmentation are destroying the earth’s last intact bio-cultural landscapes, to the point where even the Amazon Rainforest could one day be lost. He also saw the power of small change through the Learning Grounds model.

Micro-Conservation

Cloud Forest Fund's approach was inspired by the lived experiences in Nepal of our founder, Rajeev Goyal. After serving as a teacher in the Peace Corps, Rajeev pioneered the idea of a 'Vertical University' where the 'professors' of this university could be ordinary farmers, who may not have a Ph.D. or have ever set foot in a school, but possess intricate, intergenerational knowledge about local fauna and flora critical for youth to attain. Over the course of two decades, Rajeev helped establish dozens of “learning grounds,” essentially micro-conservation hubs — the “classrooms” of the Vertical University at different elevations. He observed firsthand the incredible agency, dignity and creativity of people who live deep in the forest, connected to land.

A different
approach to
philanthropy

This became the Cloud Forest Fund approach to philanthropy. Small funds deployed at the right time can make a profound difference—whether to hire an indigenous lawyer to aid with communal land titling, to rent a pontoon to transport villagers to an important planning meeting, or to hire a drone to capture an illegal land invasion that can be used in court—all can have the net effect of saving literally hundreds of thousands of acres of pristine forest and wetlands. We have seen this dynamic play out over and over again. What is needed is a great deal of time on the ground, listening to the mountains and understanding the root causes.

Reducing
bottlenecks for big
change

It is often very small bottlenecks holding back positive change, and so small grants matter a lot. Grant making must be agile, compassionate, and focused on problem solving in those ecological spaces with the greatest ecological richness. Grants should not be used to control communities and NGOs, and thus we believe in general support. We build longterm, output-focused relationships with partners, guiding them to find greater pools of support for their authentic visions. We believe that storytelling support is just as important as funds.

We do not have calls for proposals but welcome local NGOs and communities that urgently need support in protecting land, waters or biodiversity to get in touch via the contact form or by email (info@cloudforestfund.org). We tend to support smaller ʻseedʼ level efforts, with capacity building, co-visioning, funding, and connections to aligned donors where larger support is needed. but we also help more mature projects that need guidance on finding funds, drafting strategies and storytelling. We do everything only with the consent of partners. We believe in building lasting friendships and deep ties with partners, and also in enjoying the journey.

Timing is everything

We realized that a deeply holistic approach was needed—one where indigenous peoples and local communities were at the center. Only by supporting them to protect their own lands, seeds, languages, music, and dances could there be any true hope for the remaining biodiversity in the world, which is mostly safeguarded by local farmers, fisherfolk, herders, and foragers. Our focus became building holistic, poly-species communities that include wild and domesticated terrestrial and marine biodiversity where humans are just one species of many.