About Fondation Segré

Fondation Segré was established in 1996, initially with a very broad scope: to promote humanitarian, scientific, educational, artistic and environmental projects. For the first ten years, we committed funds in each of these fields. However, acting as a simple donor did not give us the feeling of having a real impact. For this, we had to narrow our areas of interest and select specific projects in which we could play an active, decisive role.

Conservation of nature and of biodiversity emerged as the predominant interest. Our focus is the protection of species, which are the building blocks of nature, and their habitats.

Our Mission

Fondation Segré is committed to help protect the biodiversity of our planet through the active conservation of threatened species and their habitat and the restoration of degraded ecosystems.

Our Strategic Priorities

Fondation Segré will pursue its mission through the following strategic priorities:

  1. Favour the long term viability of wild populations and control factors affecting their decline.
  2. Support all efforts to maintain, restore and protect critical habitats and functional ecosystems.
  3. Support captive breeding of endangered species and their reintroduction into the wild.
  4. Foster the sustainable use of renewable natural resources, notably forests, water, rangelands.
  5. Improve the efficacy and implementation of national and international legislation on biodiversity conservation, taking into account stakeholders.
  6. Support educational activities, in particular specialized training of technical staff.
  7. Cooperate with the relevant regulatory and enforcement institutions to prevent and mitigate the impact of illegal hunting and trading of wildlife.

Our engagement for nature

The Foundation either directly undertakes conservation projects or alternatively offers financial support to partner organisations. In the latter case projects are developed jointly with the partner to set the terms and conditions and the time horizon, which can extend over several years.

We have thus evolved from a well-meaning charity to a focused organisation for the conservation of nature. We are grateful to all our partners, as well as to our Board, Advisory Committee and Management team, for making this possible.

“I am concerned about the increasing number of challenges our vulnerable planet is facing but I am also encouraged by the growing interest in conservation. It seems that even the man in the street begins to realise that now is the time to act.”

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The Founder, Dr Claudio Segré

An economist and a banker, Dr Claudio Segré was involved from the start in the founding of the European Union. The idea of joint efforts by partners having a common goal later inspired his project of Fondation Segré.