Venezuela has 131 civil society groups dedicated to environmental issues in a country of 28 million people, with half of its 916,445 square kilometers under some degree of environmental protection, according to the Directory of Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations, published by the Tierra Viva Foundation. “Since the Venezuela Society of Natural Sciences was created in 1929, there have been institutions of all ages and sizes in Venezuela's 24 states, working in areas as diverse as the conservation of protected areas, research, agro-ecology, environmental education and community organizing,” the Foundation's general manager Alejandro Luy told Tierramérica.

Most of the financing for the organizations' activities “comes from international cooperation entities, embassies, corporations and other national and foreign private organizations,” said Luy. However, he added, the level of that assistance is continuing to decline.