A new tool to finance the study and preservation of nature
Background
80% of existing species remain to be described, while a large proportion of all species could disappear over the next few decades.
We have a crucial and urgent need for detailed information on biodiversity in order to understand how different species contribute to ecosystem services and how mankind can conserve and sustainably manage natural resources. At the same time, taxonomy and ecology, the two fundamental sciences that generate knowledge about biodiversity, face a number of challenges that prevent them from providing the necessary information.
Taxonomy – the scientific discipline that explores, discovers, interprets, represents, names and organises living things – which is the basis of biodiversity studies, is in decline, particularly in Europe: fewer people are being trained as taxonomists and many jobs requiring qualified taxonomists are disappearing. Natural history collections, the tangible basis of information on biodiversity, have been neglected or abandoned, particularly in higher education establishments. The decline in the funds needed to maintain and improve these collections and the decrease in the number of taxonomists have led to a shortage of information for users, whether ecologists or conservation biologists. This shortage is referred to as a taxonomic impediment. The decline in taxonomy has reached the critical point where the lack of contribution from this science is becoming an obstacle to progress in the study and conservation of biodiversity.
To address this situation, the Biotope Endowment Fund for Nature was founded by the Biotope Corporate Foundation at the end of 2019. This endowment fund has a specific status and can provide the administrative and financial engineering essential for projects to study, conserve or promote biodiversity, in France and abroad.
A tool for patronage and philanthropy
An endowment fund is an independent, not-for-profit structure (legal entity) established by the French law on the modernisation of the economy of 4 August 2008. Endowment funds are financing tools for philanthropy and patronage that carry out or finance projects of common interest, while offering tax advantages to project funders.
The endowment fund offers a favourable tax framework in France: corporate donors can benefit from a tax reduction of up to 60% of the amount paid, and individuals can claim an income tax reduction equal to 66% of the amount paid. Donations and legacies to an endowment fund are also exempt from inheritance tax.
