ZhiLan Foundation

INTRODUCTION

The Zhilan Foundation was established in January 2019 with the approval of the Shenzhen Civil Affairs Bureau. It is a pure grant-making foundation that promotes sustainable development through biodiversity conservation.

The Zhilan Foundation promotes biodiversity conservation, as well as rural revitalization and ecological civilization construction, by providing small, flexible, and long-term funding support to frontline researchers and practitioners. The Foundation focuses on conserving endangered and critical species/ecosystems beyond well-funded charismatic species/ecosystems and aims to provide the necessary resources to empower true actors.

OUR VISION

To create a world where humans and other forms of life share the Earth and enjoy a high quality of life on equal footing.

OUR MISSION

To achieve sustainable development through green revitalization.

“Not for plucking, yet admired from afar, Unsought fragrance lingers, even where none are.”

The Zhilan Foundation uses the orchid as its emblem, as it not only embodies the beauty of nature but also the virtues of a noble person. With this symbol, the Foundation pledges to uphold the principles of truth-seeking, perseverance, and integrity, and to empower frontline researchers and practitioners.

OUR VALUES

Intergrity

Upholding honesty and trustworthiness throughout the Foundation's internal management and external funding processes.

Truth-seeking

Respecting the inherent laws of human, nature, and society; identifying problems based on sound science, and finding solutions based on evidences.

Perseverance

Taking practical actions and steadfastly empowering frontline researchers and practitioners through sustained efforts.

OUR DISTINCTIVENESS

1. Digitalized Process

With the support of internet technologies, the Zhilan Foundation manages the entire process via its digital management platform.

The platform combining with other mobile internet tools (WeChat, DingTalk etc.) greatly improves our management efficiency, enabling quarterly rolling solicitation and grant-making.

2. A reciprocal and inclusive network

Biodiversity conservation spans protection, rehabilitation and sustainable use of various animal and plant groups, including insects, birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, and plants, as well as diverse ecosystems like forests, grasslands, lakes, rivers, and oceans.

Each of these represents a complex and specialized field, requiring collaborative efforts from multiple government departments, research institutions, NGOs, and enterprises.

To this end, Zhilan breaks down professional barriers across different fields and promotes cross-disciplinary and cross-border cooperation, bridging governments, academics, grassroots NGOs, private sectors and local communities to form an inclusive and reciprocal network for effective conservation.

50+

Legal, Evaluation, and Other Supportive Advisors

80+

Funding and Implementation Consultants

120+

Volunteers/Peer Review Experts

3. Evidence-based Conservation

Zhilan Foundation asks about evidence as part of the initial application and annual work plan of continuously-funded projects. When evidence is thin or vague in application, the reviewing panel organized by Zhilan will have communication/meeting with the applicants in the short lists to make it clear or strong.

For the continuously funded projects, Zhilan establishes Project Annual Evaluation Committees (PAECs) every year to review the implementation, reports, outputs and achievements of each project for conservation effectiveness evaluation. The project teams are asked to improve their project design and implementation based on the recommendations of PAECs after annual evaluation.

Each project team will be asked to give on-line and public lecture to present their experience and lesson-learned during the implementation. The best practices will also be summarized in case studies or video programs to share with the conservation community.

CONSERVATION
EFECTIVENESS