The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) recently announced the launch of its 5-year investment strategies for the Caucasus and Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forest hotspots, bringing the total number of hotspots where CEPF is currently awarding grants to thirteen. In the Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests of Tanzania and Kenya, CEPF's $7 million investment strategy will be awarded as grants to civil society groups to help safeguard the biodiversity hotspot. The Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests are home to over 300 globally threatened species, including many amphibian species found nowhere else in the world and several primate species such as the Endangered Zanzibar red colobus monkey.

CEPF's $8.5 million investment strategy in the Caucasus will focus on engaging civil society in biodiversity conservation in five target areas: Greater Caucasus, Caspian, West Lesser Caucasus, East Lesser Caucasus and Hyrcan. A number of unique and highly threatened species occur in the Caucasus hotspot, such as the Caucasian black grouse and two species of tur, an endemic goat found in the high mountains. The Caucasus includes the countries of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and parts of Russia, Turkey and Iran.

CEPF is a joint initiative of Conservation International, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank