Rare was founded in 1973 by David Hill. Rare’s early work included conservation campaigns focused on local species and community engagement. One early project took place in
Saint Lucia, where Rare worked with the country’s Forestry Department to raise awareness of the
Saint Lucia amazon (
Amazona versicolor), a parrot species that was then at risk. Paul Butler helped lead outreach efforts, engaging local communities through schools, media, and public campaigns. The campaign later came to be seen as an early example of the community-based approach that shaped Rare’s broader conservation work. By the 2010s, Rare had expanded its work internationally, applying similar approaches to marine and coastal resource management. In 2014, Rare, the
Environmental Defense Fund, and researchers at the
University of California, Santa Barbara collaborated on the
Fish Forever initiative, combining territorial fishing rights with no-take marine reserves in countries including Belize, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil, and Mozambique. In 2018, Rare expanded its fisheries work with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, focusing on strengthening community-based coastal management. A 2019 review in
Trends in Ecology & Evolution identified Rare’s
Pride campaigns as an example of conservation interventions that use social networks and trusted community messengers to influence behavior. == The Center for Behavior & the Environment ==