INQUIRY
Mission:
The Christensen Fund believes in the power of biological and cultural diversity to sustain and enrich a world faced with great change and uncertainty. We focus on the "bio-cultural" the rich but neglected adaptive interweave of people and place, culture and ecology. The Fund’s mission is to buttress the efforts of people and institutions who believe in a biodiverse world infused with artistic expression and work to secure ways of life and landscapes that are beautiful, bountiful and resilient.
Geographic Focus:
- The Greater American Southwest, namely the US Four Corners region and Northwest Mexico covering the Colorado Plateau and Delta, the Pueblo and Hispanic Communities of the Rio Arriba/Rio Grande, the Sonoran Desert on both sides of the Mexican-US border (east of the Colorado River), and the Sierra Tarahumara.
- Central Asia and Turkey, currently focusing on the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan, and the mountains and associated valleys of Northeast Turkey.
- The African Rift Valley, focusing on southwest Ethiopia, Northern Kenya and the Ethio-Kenyan borderlands.
- Northern Australia, currently focused on Arnhem Land, Far Northern Queensland, the Kimberley and the Torres Strait Islands.
- Melanesia, initial focus on Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, alongside regional networking and collaborations.
Global Biocultural Initiative:
- Institutions and Policies focuses on international or regional or local institutions that by the nature of their work could play a key role in influencing and bringing about positive change in the global advocacy of biocultural diversity issues.
- Wisdom and Practice strives to maintain and enhance resilience of bioculturally diverse (BCD) systems through: (i) networking the global community of stewards of BCD; (ii) co-creating BCD-related knowledge, wisdom and practice; and, (iii) promoting the value and application of BCD paradigm.
San Francisco Bay Area:
We award grants mostly under $40,000 to Bay Area-based institutions within the program’s framework:
- Diaspora: maintaining and sharing the cultural and artistic life of Diaspora communities from our focus regions now residing in the Bay Area.
- Engaging communities: engaging youth and wider publics of the Bay Area communities in exploring and sustaining the richness of biocultural diversity, its connection to the landscape and the threats to it from such global changes as climate instability.
- Building understanding of interdependence of biological and cultural diversity and its manifestations in our daily lives
Should you feel that your inquiry is applicable to our work as above please continue: Inquiry
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