The WildLife: Financing Wildlife Conservation, Ray Victurine

Ray Victurine, Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Conservation Finance Program Director, talks about economic incentives to promote wildlife conservation. He describes to “The WildLife” host Laurel Neme a number of examples, including Wildlife Friendly certification and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) program, among others.

Ray Victurine heads WCS’s global efforts to develop sustainable financing opportunities that explore market mechanisms to meet conservation objectives and contribute to sustainable development in global areas of biodiversity importance. Additionally, he leads WCS’s initiatives to engage with companies and governments in an effort to balance conservation and development interests through mitigating and compensating for impacts. He is actively involved in the emerging markets for ecosystem services, including work on REDD, biodiversity offsets and water, as well as exploring development of other innovative financial mechanisms for conservation. For instance, he is President of the board of the Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network. He has contributed to the design and development of a variety of endowment funds and conservation funding institutions around the world, including creation of the first land trust in East Africa. Ray's Ph.D. studies were in economics and geography and he also holds a Masters degree in agricultural economics, emphasizing natural resources and with a research focus on water resources management. This episode of “The WildLife” aired on The Radiator, WOMM-LP, 105.9 FM in Burlington, Vermont on October 18, 2010.