Guinea Bissau Biodiversity Conservation Trust Fund Project

This project aims to strengthen and consolidate the ongoing efforts to manage Guinea Bissau's rich coastal and marine biodiversity, by securing sustainable financing for these activities in perpetuity. Because of globally significant coastal and marine biodiversity, in 2005 the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank invested US$7.8 million in the Coastal and Biodiversity Management Project (CBMP). The CBMP aimed to capitalize on the efforts of international donors and NGOs throughout the 1990s to support local biodiversity conservation, by financing the investment costs for the establishment of a national protected areas network and a semi-autonomous Government agency responsible for managing it (the Institute for Biodiversity and Protected Areas in Guinea-Bissau - IBAP). The CBMP has supported the establishment of IBAP and 5 national parks (Cacheu Mangrove Forest National Park, Catanhez Forest National Park, Cufada Lakes National Park, Joao Vieira and Poilao National Marine Park and Orango National Marine Park), including staff and infrastructure for a national headquarters and local park management offices in each of the five parks, as well as awareness-raising among local communities and the development of legally-recognized park management plans. The April 2008 mid-term review mission of the World Bank concluded that IBAP's presence in the parks was effective and operational, comparing very favorably to the management of protected areas in neighboring countries in the sub-region. While the CBMP has been successful in establishing IBAP and the protected areas network in Guinea-Bissau, all of the investments made by the project will be considered a failure if they are not sustained after the end of the project. The strategy for ensuring the sustainability of the project outcomes, and the rationale for the project presented to the GEF Council in late 2004 , was that prior to the end of the CBMP the country would establish a private foundation to provide sustainable financing for IBAP and the parks after the close of the project (safeguarding these from the chronic public budget shortages of the Government and reducing their reliance on unpredictable donor financing). With two years left in the project, it is now urgent to ensure that this 'Foundation for Biodiversity in Guinea-Bissau' is established and capitalized so as to ensure that the structures and activities put in place by the CBMP can be sustained following project completion. For this reason, this project aims to secure the initial capital for the Foundation for Biodiversity in Guinea-Bissau, so that the conservation efforts well underway can continue in perpetuity after the close of the CBMP, ensuring that the latter achieves its objectives. Seed capital from the GEF will be used to leverage further capital, initially from other members of the conservation community. The GEF seed capital is expected to generate sufficient revenue to sustain core management activities in at least two of the existing coastal and marine protected areas , likely Cacheu Mangrove Forests National Park and Cufada Lakes National Park. However, further capitalization of the Foundation will be required if sustainable financing is to be secured for all five parks included in the protected area network. The GEF seed capital will enable financing from other sources to be leveraged to cover the entire network. Initially capitalization efforts will focus on the conservation community, including significantly the BioCarbon Fund, as well as on key stakeholders in industrial fishing, off-shore petroleum and mining sectors. More specifically, funding from the BioCarbon Fund is expected to begin with a first payment in 2009, followed by an annual payment over the subsequent 3 years (payments would be made directly to the endowment of the Foundation, to complement the seed capital from the GEF). Over the longer term after the completion of BioCarbon funding, it is expected that endowment revenues will be complimented by stable revenues from other sources in the private sector, through carbon credit trading for avoided deforestation, or payments for environmental services, tourism fees, mining royalties, etc.