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Financing nature conservation needs new approaches. This involves mobilising funding and community action that can provide the long-term sustainability needed to secure healthier ecosystems and improve livelihoods, a World Bank report said.
Launched today at the 11th Conference of the Parties of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Hyderabad, the report, Expanding Financing for Biodiversity Conservation: Experiences from Latin America and the Caribbean, documents five examples where diverse sources of financing – from public to private to non-government – are being combined to fund effective conservation and community development.
Innovative partnership
Speaking at the CBD meeting, World Bank Vice-President for sustainable development Rachel Kyte said, “We are into an era of diminishing public expenditures for biodiversity conservation. This calls for more innovative partnerships between public, private and non-government spheres to bridge public financing gaps across boundaries.”
The report highlights the case of the Brazilian state of Acre, which decoupled its economic growth from deforestation. The State has reduced deforestation rates by 70 per cent while growing its GDP by 44 per cent between 2003 and 2008. It did so by reducing illegal deforestation through the monitoring of timber licences, enforcing environmental regulations, regularising land tenure, creating development programs in intact forest areas.
Also in Brazil, the State of Rio de Janeiro filled 43 percent of its conservation financing gap by setting up the Atlantic Forest Fund (Fundo da Mata Atlântica, FMA). It is partially funded through legally enshrined compensation payments for the environmental impacts of industrial and infrastructure projects. The funds are being used to finance projects in approximately 20 protected areas, the report said.
As countries search for ways to conserve the world’s biodiversity, Latin America is showing the way, the report added.
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