GEF. Global Support. Conservation GEF BIODIVERSITY STRATEGY IN ACTION. Biodiversity. for GEF BIODIVERSITY PROJECTS BY STRATEGIC PRIORITY

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1 Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized for GEF Global Support Biodiversity Conservation GEF BIODIVERSITY STRATEGY IN ACTION As the financial mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) helps developing countries and countries with economies in transition reduce their rate of biodiversity loss. The GEF supports the key objectives of the CBD and other activities worldwide to help generate global environmental benefits in the area of biodiversity. Since its inception, the GEF has been working with governments and other development stakeholders to create novel institutions, partnerships, and agreements that advance global, regional, and national efforts to achieve sustainable development. The GEF s biodiversity portfolio has helped promote and improve management systems of protected areas worldwide and catalyze the integration of biodiversity into such production sectors as fisheries, tourism, and agriculture. Biodiversity projects constitute the largest percentage of GEF s portfolio, making up 36 percent of total GEF grants. Between 1991 and 2006, the GEF provided about $2.2 billion in grants, and leveraged about $5.17 billion in cofinancing in support for about 750 projects in 155 countries. In addition, activities in other GEF focal areas also contribute to the CBD s strategy and objectives, in particular those activities in the international waters, land degradation, and integrated ecosystem management areas. THE STRATEGY The GEF s biodiversity strategy is designed to achieve biodiversity conservation within the framework of an ecosystem approach. Currently, GEF BIODIVERSITY PROJECTS BY STRATEGIC PRIORITY SP3 10% SP2 35% SP4 6% SP1 49% GEF s biodiversity portfolio addresses biodiversity conservation through four strategic priorities. Strategic priority one focuses on catalyzing sustainability of protected area systems at national levels. Strategic priority two focuses on mainstreaming biodiversity in production landscapes and sectors. Strategic priority three focuses on capacity building for the implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Strategic priority four promotes the generation, dissemination, and uptake of good practices for addressing current and emerging biodiversity issues. The first two strategic priorities are the backbone of the current GEF biodiversity strategy and emphasize in situ conservation and sustainable use. All of GEF s biodiversity work is consistent with country priorities to place projects and programs within a proper context and framework, to emphasize sustainability and mainstreaming, and to strengthen partnerships.

2 Catalyzing the Sustainability of Protected Area Systems at National Level As the largest supporter for protected areas globally, the GEF has invested in over 1,500 protected areas, covering more than 300 million hectares. The GEF has provided more than $1.5 billion to fund protected areas, leveraging an additional $3.16 billion in cofinancing from project partners. To effectively promote the CBD s objectives, the GEF focuses on protected area systems, rather than individual protected areas. It is supporting a new generation of initiatives to catalyze the sustainability of national systems of protected areas. In addition, the GEF promotes a sustainable financial future for protected areas through comprehensive, system-level financing solutions: Conservation trust funds Systems of payments for environmental services Easements Debt-for-nature swaps Certification processes and other mechanisms Internalization of protected area economic values within government agencies Moreover, the GEF strongly supports wilderness protected areas, ranging from the Amazon to the Russian Arctic to the North American deserts. African Protected Areas From , the GEF has been more active in improving protected area management in Africa than in any other region, both in terms of hectares and the number of protected areas being supported. Several new GEF projects implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zambia seek to ensure the conservation of in situ biological diversity by strengthening national protected area systems, improving technical and financial sustainability, and linking local, national, and regional constituents. These projects will lay the groundwork for a long-term effective system of protected areas. Kevin Schafer/Corbis Gorillas in Uganda

3 that have the largest impact on biodiversity and ecosystems to ensure more sustainable use and behavioral changes across all sectors of society. The GEF is making an effort to overcome barriers to changes in production landscapes and seascapes. The private sector is increasingly playing a substantial role in GEF initiatives. Mainstreaming Biodiversity into Brazilian Production Systems The recently approved GEF-supported Brazil Mainstreaming and Institutional Consolidation Project is designed to promote mainstreaming of biodiversity and institutional strengthening at national level in key government and private sector planning strategies, investments, and practices. The project will work to analyze existing constraints to biodiversity mainstreaming and will propose policy measures that will facilitate and promote the mainstreaming of biodiversity into different public and private sectors. Payments for Ecosystem Services The GEF is helping develop markets and create value for stakeholders to maintain ecosystems for their services. The Costa Rica Ecomarkets project gives forest owners residing in production landscapes market-based incentives to protect such environment services in forests as carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, and hydrological functions. This project was one of the first of its kind in the GEF biodiversity portfolio. The recently approved Mexico Environmental Services Project will improve the provision of environmental services by strengthening and expanding existing programs for payment of environmental services related to water, carbon capture, and biodiversity. It will also support the establishment of new local payment of environmental services mechanisms. This will enhance and protect biological diversity and preserve globally significant forest and mountain ecosystems. Greening Development along the Dalmatian Coast In Croatia, a recently approved GEF project, aims to green economic development across the Dalmatian coastal zone by creating an enabling environment and changing the behavior of economic actors within the landscape. It will do this by mainstreaming biodiversity principles into government ministries and planning and by working directly with industry, particularly tourism, agriculture, fisheries, and the banking sector. In addition, the project will support the standardization and improvement of the protected areas network within the region through a series of demonstrations, the promotion of financial sustainability, and the development of local capacity. Capacity Building for the Implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety Because the introduction of living modified organisms into the environment poses a potential risk to biodiversity, biosafety constitutes a high priority for the GEF and recipient countries. The GEF supports systemic and institutional capacity building for biosafety, including the development and implementation of national biosafety frameworks (NBFs). Activities include regulatory development, training in risk assessment and risk management, support for the effective participation in the Biosafety Clearing-House, and promotion of public participation and awareness. Relevant stakeholders of government sectors, as well as key private sector and civil society representatives, have an important role in the implementation of the projects. Between 2003 and 2005, 126 countries were participating in the development of NBFs and 12 countries had participated in projects to implement the Cartagena Protocol. From 2003 to 2006, the GEF committed grants worth $240 million with about $7 million leveraged in cofinancing from governments.

4 Danny Lehman/Corbis The Dalmatian Coast Promoting the Generation, Dissemination, and Uptake of Good Practices for Addressing Current and Emerging Biodiversity Issues The GEF s strategy seeks to disseminate lessons learned and best practices to improve project design and implementation, increase innovation, and enhance the impact of GEF activities. It also aims at improving the capacity for scientific and technical cooperation in the context of emerging issues through North-South and South- South exchange of information using existing knowledge networks, such as the Clearing- House Mechanism. These efforts, in turn, will help make GEF s biodiversity efforts more effective and sustainable. From 2003 to 2006 the GEF committed close to $20 million in grants and leveraged more than $40 million from partners to support projects under this strategic priority. Knowledge Network for Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use The BD Learn Project The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the UNDP, and the World Bank are jointly designing a project that will strengthen the capacity to analyze, synthesize, disseminate, and adopt good practices, innovative approaches, and new tools from biodiversity projects and programs (both GEF and non-gef) to increase the GEF s impacts. In doing so, the project will serve the global portfolio of GEFfunded biodiversity conservation projects and provide a valuable resource to pipeline future GEF projects. STATISTICAL OVERVIEW GEF Biodiversity Investments by Phase The GEF biodiversity portfolio has seen a steady increase in investments over the three phases as shown in Figure 2. It has grown to approximately 752 projects in 155 countries worth $2.2 billion of GEF financing through fiscal year A total of $5.17 billion has been leveraged in cofinancing. All together, the total contribution of GEF s initiatives in biodiversity conservation is about $7.3 billion. 1 These figures are from Fiscal year 1991 to June 2006.

5 GEF Funding by Ecosystem Type The GEF uses its five operational programs to guide its support for ecosystems. The operational programs are consistent with the CBD s thematic areas of work. The GEF biodiversity portfolio works in a variety of ecosystems: drylands, coastal and marine and inland freshwater systems, forests, and mountains. Operational Program 13 addresses agricultural biodiversity, which can be found within and outside of agroecosystems. Geographic Distribution of GEF Biodiversity Projects The regional or geographic distribution of GEF funds is strongly correlated to countries with the largest percentage of GEF investment within the biodiver- GEF BIODIVERSITY INVESTMENTS BY PHASE (IN $MILLIONS) GEF FUNDING BY ECOSYSTEM (IN $MILLIONS) $3,000 Agricultural Biodiversity 2% $2,500 $2,000 Mountains 23% Drylands 16% $1,500 $1,000 $500 0 Pilot Phase GEF I GEF II GEF III Forests 33% Coastal, Marine, and Freshwater Systems 26% GEF Allocation Cofinancing Amount GEF FUNDING FOR BIODIVERSITY BY REGION (IN $MILLIONS) Latin America and Caribbean 34% Global 6% Multiregional 2% Africa 28% GEF FUNDING FOR BIODIVERSITY BY IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Europe and Central Asia 9% Asia 21% 0 UNDP UNEP World Bank Joint Executing Implementation Agencies GEF Grant (in $millions) Number of Projects

6 In Zambia, for example, a project will provide core strategic support to strengthen the system of national protected areas. Interventions have been designed taking into account the country s context, strategies, and identified barriers. The project will support capacity-building activities focused at the systemic and institutional levels, protected area system reclassification, and demonstration of new management models at two field demonstration sites. Cofinancing, provided by various donors, will strengthen the management of a set of high-profile national parks. These parks will serve as the main engine of tourism growth and long-term anchor for the protected area system. Amazon Region Protected Areas Program Brazil has established the Amazon Region Protected Area Program (ARPA) to expand its existing protected area network in the Amazon and improve capacity for management. The GEF, through the World Bank, is providing one-third of the resources to ARPA, a $90 million program. ARPA supports expansion and consolidation of strict protected areas in the Amazonian region and expects to establish 18 million hectares of protected areas with the active participation of local communities. Overall, ARPA seeks to identify and create new strict protected areas and develop long-term sustainable management tools and mechanisms for effective protection within all Amazonian strict protected areas. Marine Protected Areas along the Chilean Coast A GEF-UNDP project will help the government of Chile to conserve and sustainably manage marine and coastal biodiversity by establishing Multiple-Use Marine coastal Protected Areas (MUMPAs) in critical areas of the Chilean coast. Through this work, the government seeks to remove barriers for the definition and implementation of an integrated management system for coastal and marine biodiversity and its biological resources. To achieve this, the government will create MUMPAs in three demonstration sites of global importance and develop tools and mechanisms to facilitate their replication in other parts of the country. Trust Funds A strong advocate of conservation trust funds, the GEF has supported more than 60 conservation trust funds or endowment funds in protected area related biodiversity projects, which include more then 336 protected areas. The first trust fund supported by the GEF was the Bhutan Trust Fund for Environmental Conservation, to which the GEF committed $10 million to provide a secure source of funding for the environment in this financially constrained country. Since then, major trust funds in Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, and Mexico were all created with endowment support from the GEF. Other significant trust funds have been developed in the Eastern Carpathians in Europe, the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, and the Bwindi and Mgahinga Gorilla Parks in Uganda to provide longterm and sustainable support for biodiversity conservation. More recently a project worth $15 million in GEF grants was awarded for establishing the Colombia protected areas trust fund. Mainstreaming Biodiversity into Production Landscapes and Sectors Mainstreaming biodiversity into other sectors and landscapes outside protected areas is an increasingly strong basis for GEF biodiversity programming. It seeks to mainstream activities at spatial, sectoral, and institutional levels and through market transformation. From 2003 to 2006, the GEF committed approximately $220 million in grants to mainstreaming projects. The grants leveraged more than $600 million in cofinancing from various partners. Future GEF directions for mainstreaming will internalize the goals of biodiversity conservation and its sustainable use into production systems, supply chains, markets, sectors, development models, policies, and payments for ecosystem services and programs. A number of GEF-supported initiatives are integrating biodiversity considerations into sectors

7 sity portfolio. A large percentage of GEF biodiversity resources has been appropriated to the Like- Minded Megadiversity Countries or LMMC. These 17 countries are estimated to hold 70 percent of the world s biodiversity and are also found in the major hotspots and wilderness areas of the world. Eight of the countries represented in the LMMC are from the Latin America and Caribbean region, four are from the Africa region, and three from Asia. GEF Funding for Biodiversity by Implementing Agency GEF s three implementing agencies The World Bank, UNDP, and UNEP are at the heart of its work. The GEF s Executing Agencies also contribute to its impact: African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Development Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and UN Industrial Development Organization. The GEF draws on the comparative advantages of each agency to leverage the greatest benefit and output from each dollar the GEF commits.

8 FOR MORE INFORMATION Global Environment Facility 1818 H Street NW Washington DC USA Tel: Fax: July 2006