About our grantmaking
MacArthur’s conservation grantmaking protects the biodiversity of the planet, while balancing the needs of communities that depend upon natural resources for their survival. With the increasing threat of climate change, the Foundation also supports efforts to adapt conservation strategies to a rapidly changing environment, particularly in eight hotspots around the world.
Latest news
December 10, 2009
MacArthur grantee the Carnegie Institution for Science has launched a new website featuring its technology that maps and monitors forests with satellite imagery. Visit the website »
October 22, 2009
Supported in part by MacArthur, the Wildlife Conservation Society has helped the Cambodian government designate land for preservation of both wildlife and carbon. Read more »
Grantee News, Press Release
Nature, October 21, 2009
The article features the work of Greg Asner, a tropical ecologist with MacArthur grantee the Carnegie Institution for Science’s global ecology department who has developed a powerful laser system and sophisticated software to map trees and to calculate the biomass of forests. Stopping tropical deforestation, which accounts for about 20 percent of carbon dioxide emissions annually, will likely become part of a new climate change treaty when nations meet in Copenhagen in December, and the advanced technology in development at Carnegie will radically improve the quality of data on above ground carbon content. Read the article »
The New York Times, October 12, 2009
MacArthur grantee Elinor Ostrom, of Indiana University, Bloomington, was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Economics for her work. Citing examples of successful community management, Ostrom challenged the idea that common ownership of property results in exploitation of natural resources. The Foundation has supported Ostrom’s work through the University’s Workshop in Political Theory and Analysis since 1996, in addition to her research at the International Forestry Resources and Institutions program. Read the article »
February 3, 2009
Recognizing the significant impacts climate change is already having on both nature and people, MacArthur is providing $2 million to develop a new Ecosystems and Livelihoods Adaptation Network. Read more »
Grantee News, Press Release
October 6, 2008
MacArthur is committing $50 million to help conservation groups working in eight biodiversity hotspots preserve biodiversity in the face of climate change. Read more »
Press Release