Conservation

Fungi are not acknowledged as relevant organisms in decision-making spheres, although we are unthinkable without them. Language creates reality and we want to place the fungi where they belong.

Goals

1

3F's: Fauna Flora Funga, are used as language to refer to macroscopic life on Earth.

2

Fungi at the service of the Rights of Nature movement.

3

Actively support actions to determine the probability of extinction of fungi in every continent using IUCN Redlist Criteria.

Our Work

Advocacy

Fungal Conservation Pledge

At the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP16, held in Cali, Colombia in October 2024, the governments of Chile and the United Kingdom, in collaboration with the Fungi Foundation, launched the Fungal Conservation Pledge. This initiative calls on Parties to the CBD to ‘recognise fungi as an independent kingdom of life in national and international legislation, policies and agreements, in order to advance their conservation and to adopt concrete measures that allow for maintaining their benefits to ecosystems and people in the context of the triple environmental crisis’, and has already been signed by over 10 countries.

Read the pledge

Initiative

Fauna, Flora & Funga

This initiative aims to write this neglected kingdom of life into conservation and agricultural policy frameworks, protect it under international and domestic law, and unlock crucial funding for mycological research, surveys and educational programs.

Read more & sign the statement

Web App

Fungal Conservation Tracker

Fungal Conservation Tracker is a living project led by the Fungi Foundation. This project was born out of the realization that fungi, despite their ecological significance and importance to human well-being, are often overlooked and under-protected in almost all countries worldwide. We aim to shed light on the deficiencies in global fungal conservation efforts and highlight successes.

Explore the tracker
[Credit: Giuliana Furci]

Advocacy

Constitutional Assembly of Chile

Listen to Giuliana Furci in the Environment and Rights of Nature Commission of the Constitutional Assembly of the Republic of Chile on November, 2021, advocating for Fungi to be included explicitly through the foundation's 3 Fs Initiative; and to be inclusively included along with plants and animals when those two kingdoms are mentioned.

View Video
[Credit: Giuliana Furci]

Advocacy

Chilean environmental law

In 2010 it was decided to modify the Law on General Bases of the Environment of Chile (Law 19.300). Giuliana Furci, along with allies from other environmental non-profits like Terram Foundation, took this opportunity to propose a baseline of fungi. In 2012, fungi officially entered Chilean law. In the most recent species classification of 2019 there are 45 species of fungi and lichens listed.

Find out more
[Credit: Giuliana Furci]

IUCN Redlist Criteria

Butyriboletus loyo

Chile was and remains the only country that considers fungi in its law. After achieving it, Butyrioletus loyo was listed as an endangered species, due to the reduction in the size of its population, the high levels of exploitation for human consumption, and the impoverishment of its habitat due to deforestation. Loyo also entered the IUCN red list globally.

Since then, we’ve collaborated in several studies and reports to establish sustainable harvesting practices.

Explore our work with Loyo

Campaign

FFCL Fungarium

The FFCL Fungarium has samples from all over the world and houses close to 2.000 species collected from Chile. Currently, the oldest samples date from the 60s-70s. The FFCL Fungarium contains unique species worldwide such as Amanita galactica (Furci & Dentinger 2020).

The curators are Giuliana Furci and Dr. Francisco Kuhar, curator of the CORD Herbarium in Argentina, CONICET Researcher at the University of Córdoba, and co-founder of the Hongos de Argentina Foundation.

Learn more about this campaign

Campaign

Museum Work

The Fungi Foundation has years of proven experience working with with art exhibits, natural history museums, and other science institutions.

One of our organization's missions is to spread fungal knowledge through learning centers around the world. Learn how you can be a part of this change.

Learn more

Report

State of the World’s Fungi

Published in 2018, it’s the first report outlining the state of the world’s fungi. It was organized by Royal Botanic Gardens, KEW, and co-authored by Giuliana Furci. 

The report makes it clear that fungi should be viewed on a par with the plant & animal kingdoms. What also becomes apparent is that when looking for nature-based solutions to some of our most critical global challenges, fungi could provide many of the answers.

Read the Report