This section provides a breakdown of the various donors, government agencies, NGOs, academic and research institutions, and private-sector concerns that play a significant role in biodiversity conservation in the Upper Guinean Forest Ecosystem. Many programs and activities described here will also appear in a subsequent section of this profile that describes opportunities for CEPF investment.
For the region overall, foreign donor assistance accounts for approximately 9% of the aggregate Gross Domestic Product of West African countries. Of this amount, approximately half is derived from multilateral sources and half from bilateral sources. The principal multilateral sources include the
World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund, the
African Development Bank (ADB), the
United Nations agencies and the
European Union.
France,
Germany,
Japan, the
United States, the
Netherlands and
Canada are the largest bilateral donors.
The prevailing trends in multilateral and bilateral donor investment in West Africa are relevant to biodiversity conservation only by comparison, not as a focus of the investments themselves. In fact, the portion of this support directed to biodiversity or, more generally, to environmental conservation has accounted for only 0.1% of the total investment by these countries and institutions over recent decades. In the region, conservation has been regarded as a luxury compared to the alleviation of poverty and refugee needs. Meanwhile, environmental degradation undermines the resources on which future economic growth and development depend.
Support from the
Global Environmental Facility, channeled to
Conservation International through the
United Nations Development Program, was instrumental in conducting the West African Conservation Priority-Setting Workshop (From the Forest to the Sea: Biodiversity Connections from Guinea to Togo) in December 1999. As noted, many of the recommendations from the workshop form the basis for strategic directions that will be supported by the CEPF.
The
World Bank-funded initiative that is most relevant in the region is the West Africa Pilot Community-Based Natural Resource and Wildlife Management Project. While the project's focus is on drylands outside the Guinean Forest Hotspot, it is relevant for two reasons. First, it is an ongoing ambitious transboundary initiative in the region (between Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso), and second, it promotes connectivity by working with communities on compatible land uses bordering national parks, and promotes sustainable use by building capacity for conservation-based enterprise.
The
African Development Bank (ADB), based in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, unites 53 African member countries and 24 nonregional members. Recognizing the importance of a strong resource base, the ADB has added environmental protection to its strategic areas of focus, and in its vision statement identifies environment and gender as two cross-cutting issues that will pervade all of its operations and sectoral activities. Additionally, its role in supporting good governance in member countries is described as "probably the single most important catalytic role the Bank will play in the years ahead in the fight against poverty." The ADB's developing role in resource management and multisector planning is expected to expand in the coming decade.
Similarly, the role of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is expected to expand as its Early Warning Observatory becomes operational. Already involved in issues of governance, peace, and security, this regional entity now includes environmental degradation and monitoring among its goals. The 16 nation members of ECOWAS share a commitment to reduction of economic barriers across national lines, and consider environmental and resource management to be essential strategic components of a strengthened regional economy.
A large portion of the international support for environmental projects in West Africa is channeled through government ministries and institutions whose objectives include the management and regulation of natural resources. The appropriate agencies for each country in the Guinean Forest hotspot are:
| Côte d'Ivoire: |
Ministry of Construction & Environment
Direction de la Protection de la Nature
Protected Area Management Program
Société de Développement des Forêts |
| Ghana: |
Ministry of Lands and Forestry
Forestry Commission
Wildlife Division
Forestry Division
Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology
Environmental Protection Agency
Water Resources Commission |
| Guinea: |
Administration et Coordination des Grands Projets
Direction Nationale de l'Environnement
Direction Nationale des Eaux et Forêts
Direction Nationale des Mines |
| Liberia: |
Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs
Forestry Development Authority
National Environmental Commission of Liberia |
| Sierra Leone: |
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and the Environment
Forestry Division |
| Togo: |
Ministère de l'Environnement
Direction de la Faune et de la Chasse |
These are examples of national programs that have received support from international donor agencies for projects implemented by the government agencies listed above.
National Protected Areas Management Program (PCGAP): Côte d'Ivoire's 12-year National PCGAP has been launched at a projected cost of US$68 million to enhance the country's protected-area management capacity, both by broadening the array of partners and improving the relationship between people and protected areas. National implementing agencies will be the
Ministry of Construction and the Environment and the
Directorate for Nature Protection. Because implementation of the strategy implies important legal and institutional reforms as well as major capacity-building efforts, PCGAP will be implemented in phases using the
World Bank's Adaptable Program Lending mechanism, with multiple donors participating.
Primary goals for the PCGAP are to:
- provide the Government of Côte d'Ivoire with the capacity to effectively manage protected areas over the long term;
- develop and implement sustainable resource management strategies that enhance NGO, private sector and community involvement; and
- restore most protected areas to ecologically acceptable levels.
The development objective will be achieved by establishing an appropriate legal framework, creating new institutions to manage the technical and financial aspects of the system, and investing in activities in the protected areas themselves.
Groundwork has been laid for PCGAP with resources from government,
GEF Block C,
EU STABEX funds and contributions by the
World Wildlife Fund and
Conservation International. Simultaneous work has focused on establishment of a new national institution for protected area management and the stabilization of three protected areas (Marahoué, Comoe and Mt. Peko) under the "Programme Transitoire." The project financing plan includes US$15 million from the
International Development Association, US$12 million from the
Government of Côte d'Ivoire and US$41 million in co-financing from the
European Development Fund (EDF),
Fonds d'Aide et de Cooperation,
Agence Francaise de Développement,
GEF,
Kreditanstalt Fur Wiederaufbau (KfW) and the
World Wildlife Fund. This support will be directed toward deforestation, biodiversity protection, land tenure and land management.
UNDP-GEF: The GEF Small Grants Programme (GEF/SGP) was launched in 1992 by UNDP. The GEF/SGP provides grants of up to US$50,000 and other support to community-based organizations and NGOs for activities that address local problems related to the GEF areas of concern. Since its inception, the GEF/SGP has funded over 1,500 projects in Africa, North America and the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Today, the programme is operational in 50 countries, including Côte d'Ivoire.
The GEF/SGP recognizes the essential role that households and communities, applying locally appropriate solutions, can play in conserving biodiversity, reducing the likelihood of adverse climate change, and protecting international waters. The program operates on the premise that people will be empowered to protect their environment when they are organized to take action, have a measure of control over access to the natural resource base, have the necessary information and knowledge, and believe that their social and economic well-being is dependent on sound long-term resource management. However, the GEF/SGP is more than simply a fund that provides small grants to improve the local environment. By raising public awareness, building partnerships, and promoting policy dialogue, the GEF/SGP seeks to create a more supportive environment within countries for achieving sustainable development and addressing global environment issues.
The decentralized structure of the Small Grants Programme encourages maximum country and community level ownership and initiative. UNDP-GEF Small Grants Programme is supporting a project for the protection and recovery of degraded mangroves in an area near the Azagny National Park in Fresco.
In Ghana, the
United States Agency for International Development(USAID) has invested heavily in Kakum National Park and has pledged US$2 million to endow the
Ghana Heritage Conservation Trust, as part of an economic growth through resource conservation initiative in Ghana's Central Region. Other important biodiversity investment in recent years has come through the
European Union, which has focused on an integrated development and conservation program for Bia and Ankasa National Park, and several major
World Bank initiatives over the past decade in the forest and wildlife sectors that laid the groundwork for a National Resource Management Program.
Natural Resource Management Program(NRMP): The government of Ghana has obtained a US$8.6 million grant from the GEF to support implementation of the Biodiversity Component of its US$90 million NRMP, for which the World Bank is coordinating investments from several donors. This program will be conducted under the auspices the Ministry of Lands and Forestry. In Phase I of the NRMP, the Biodiversity Component will be implemented to identify, document, establish and legally protect two new types of strict protected areas, Globally Significant Biodiversity Areas and Provenance Protection Areas, in remnant dry forests of southern Ghana. All of the targeted forests are currently listed as forest reserves and are not included within the national system of protected areas.
The NRMP seeks to establish an appropriate national policy and an effective institutional framework for sustainable natural resource management, and to develop and test resource management systems. There are five project components:
- First, high-forest resource management will establish forest policy and legal framework, design and test integrated forest reserve management systems, and encourage private-sector involvement in settings on and off forest reserves.
- Second, savanna resource management will develop new multidisciplinary approaches to dry lands management, and will improve systems for community-based management of savanna woodland and other resources.
- Third, wildlife resource management will retrain personnel in the Wildlife Department and introduce park and reserve management plans.
- Fourth, environmental management coordination will support district-level planning and monitoring, and will improve information flow among sectoral agencies.
- Fifth, biodiversity conservation efforts will develop and implement integrated reserve management plans.
Recent talks have raised the prospect of integrating the follow-up program to the Coastal Wetland Management Program, creating a strategic package.
UNDP-GEF: The GEF Small Grants Programme (GEF/SGP) was launched in 1992 by UNDP. The GEF/SGP provides grants of up to US$50,000 and other support to community-based organizations and NGOs for activities that address local problems related to the GEF areas of concern. Since its inception, the GEF/SGP has funded over 1,500 projects in Africa, North America and the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Today, the programme is operational in 50 countries, including Ghana. The
UNDP-GEF project description under development is "Preparation of a Trans-Boundary Diagnostic Analysis for the Integrated Management of the Volta River basin."
The objective is to prepare a Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis, a preliminary outline of a Strategic Action Programme (SAP), and a GEF Project Brief. The project aims to establish the framework for a consensus-building process for which the long-term purpose is to secure global environmental benefits by reducing the degradation of the Volta River basin.
All the activities to be implemented in the PDF-B are designed as preparatory actions, and require a regionally collaborative SAP.
The project brief that will be submitted to the GEF will outline the modalities of operation and management of the full project. The document will include identification of priority short-term actions -i.e., pilot projects. More specifically, the project brief will include a list of activities required for the formulation of an SAP- such as additional studies; demonstration projects to test feasibility and costs; priority investment projects; and capacity-building at national and regional levels, including an analysis of baseline and incremental costs.
The
GEF/SGP is also funding a Hippo Conservation Project on the north border of the Bui National Park, to be implemented by Conservation International, as well as two projects in the Western Region: Wantram Sacred Grove Conservation in an off-reserve area, and a second project that supports NGO efforts to conserve on and off-reserve forests in exceptional hotspots by maximizing returns per unit area of forest land in ways that are compatible with forest conservation.
Guinea received support from the
USAID, approximately US$4 million of which has been directed to the Guinea Natural Resources Management Project completed in September 1999. This project focused on the Fouta Djallon Highlands. It is being followed by the Expanded Natural Resources Management Project, which will run through the year 2005 and include other forested regions of Guinea, possibly those of the southeastern portion of the country.
The
European Commission has supported watershed-based regional planning in the northern sector of the country, including the establishment of national parks and agricultural and infrastructure development.
UNEP-GEF is in the process of developing a project brief on "Integrated Management of the Fouta Djallon Highlands" with UNEP functioning as the lead IA with support from World Bank and UNDP. The Executing Agencies at a regional level are International Co-ordination Office (ICO/OAU) of the FDH-IRDP, Conakry, Guinea, in collaboration with ECOWAS.
The main objectives of the GEF project to be developed during the PDF-B are the conservation and sustainable use of the international watersheds and the biodiversity resources of the Fouta Djallon Highlands that are of paramount importance for the subregion. The GEF project will draw on the experiences and information collected by the Fouta Djallon Programme coordinated by ICO-OAU, to promote holistic approaches to integrated ecosystem management and to design participatory and community-based strategies for management of basin slopes in the Fouta Djallon Highlands that will lead to in-situ conservation and sustainable use of soil, water and biota. These activities are also expected to mitigate downstream effects of land degradation in the international river basins originate in the Highlands. The project will take a watershed approach to ensure transfer of best practices and lessons learned between different river catchments, and to identify socially and culturally acceptable approaches that are economically viable; the resulting improvements in land management and catchment management will be disseminated throughout the Highlands. The project will also draw on the broad political support for the OAU-coordinated program from the eight member states watered by rivers originating in the Highlands.
Liberia's ratification of the Convention on Biodiversity is still pending approval by the Secretariat; until it is approved, Liberia will not be eligible for CEPF support or any GEF investment. The UNDP and European Union resident representatives have both taken personal leadership to initiate the first significant biodiversity investment since Liberia's civil war. Last year UNDP pledged US$350,000 to establish the National Environmental Commission, and the EU approved a US$750,000 for a forest assessment that requires 20% matching funds. In addition, the U.K.-based Darwin Initiative has recently invested US$100,000 in Sapo National Park, the country's sole protected area.
Biodiversity investment in Sierra Leone in recent years has been limited to extremely small sums through regional NGOs such as the Environmental Foundation for Africa and individual field research biologists.
Nongovernmental Organizations
The NGO community in West Africa includes local, national and international entities, many of which have interests in natural resource management and conservation - including management of natural habitats, investment in capacity-building, and better communication regarding the significance of conservation efforts.
Local and National NGOs: Local NGOs vary significantly with regard to their institutional capacity and the degree to which their activities focus on biodiversity conservation. Many are young institutions that lack experience. Others function largely as consultants to development agencies, working on contracts. Many have a limited geographic scope. The leading NGOs in this region, in terms of their past and potential contribution to biodiversity conservation, have worked on biodiversity conservation projects in the past, maintain an active presence with government agencies, and have track records that indicate leadership potential for the civil sector. These are:
Ghana Wildlife Society
Guinée Ecologie
Society for the Conservation of Nature in Liberia
Conservation Society of Sierra Leone
Côte d'Ivoire-Nature
Nigerian Conservation Society
The
Environmental Foundation for Africa, based in Monrovia, Liberia, has worked successfully in the U.K. to raise awareness and build support there for the region. The foundation has emphasized the impact of conflict on conservation. Although small and young, its focus and leadership occupy a unique niche among regional organizations.
International NGOs dedicated to biodiversity conservation in the region are relatively few.
World Wide Fund for Nature - International (WWF-IT) maintains a regional office in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, providing conservation support to a large region extending from Senegal to Nigeria. In Côte d'Ivoire, WWF-IT serves as partner to the government for the management of Comoe National Park and participates in a consortium that advises the government on the development of PCGAP.
BirdLife International is involved in a parallel role in Mt. Peko National Park and has been active designing initiatives on the Côte d'Ivoire side of Mt. Nimba and participating in the PCGAP consortium. The third NGO consortium member in Côte d'Ivoire is
Conservation International (CI), which has its project base in Marahoué National Park. CI also has been involved since 1992 in Ghana, starting with the Central Region Natural Resource and Cultural Heritage Conservation Project and maintains offices in Accra and Cape Coast.
WWF-Cameroon is now actively involved in efforts to survey and monitor wildlife populations in the Takamanda and Mone Forest Reserves, especially the critically endangered Cross River gorilla, and to upgrade the status of these reserves to that of national parks.
Flora and Fauna International's project roster includes the upcoming Liberia forest assessment and Mt. Nimba (Guinea side) GEF project.
Wetlands International has a regional office in Dakar, Senegal, and to date has had more intensive involvement west of Guinea (outside the Guinean Forest Hotspot), but is potentially a strong ally.
With only a few exceptions, the involvement of West African institutions of higher learning in conservation is best described as minor. Progress suffers for lack of available researchers, analysts, and facilities that can support baseline studies, periodic monitoring, and training. Nevertheless, with appropriate strengthening, this sector could be positioned to fortify the conservation community significantly.
One way to strengthen the capacity of West African universities to contribute to conservation efforts is to promote exchange and collaborative work with foreign universities that have been active in the region. There are several good examples of foreign university programs that have already established such collaborations or could do so. The
University of Wageningen (Netherlands) and its ECOSYN Project has conducted a series of vegetation studies and botanical surveys in the Upper Guinea region. The
University of Quebec (Canada) has initiated an environmental studies program at the
University of Conakry, Ghana.
Beaver College (United States) has established the Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program in collaboration with the
Universidad Nacional de Guinea Equatorial, the focus of which is the long-term monitoring and ecological study of Bioko's endemic primates.
Likely national academic partners from West African countries to participate in future activities of this nature include:
| Ghana: |
University of Ghana - Legon
University of Cape Coast
University of Science and Technology (Kumasi) |
| Côte d'Ivoire: |
Université de Cocody (Abidjan)
Université d'Abobo-Adjamé |
| Guinea: |
Université de Conakry |
| Liberia: |
University of Liberia |
| Sierra Leone: |
University of Sierra Leone (Freetown) |
Many national research institutions in West Africa region are quasi-governmental entities affiliated with universities from which they remain distinct. Like universities, their capacities and infrastructure are severely constrained, but their missions and output could be strengthened as part of the effort to provide greater benefit to national conservation efforts. Many of these research institutions already participate in the development of national conservation strategies and contribute to impact assessments for development agencies. These research institutions are potential partners in regional biodiversity conservation efforts:
| Ghana: |
Center for African Wetlands (regional), Legon
Center for Development Studies, Cape Coast
Remote Sensing Applications Unit, Legon |
| Côte d'Ivoire: |
Bureau National d'Etudes Techniques et de Développement
Centre de Recherche en Ecologie, Abidjan
Centre de Recherche Océanologique
Centre Suisse de Recherche Scientifique |
| Guinea: |
Centre de Recherche Scientifique de Conakry Rogbane
Centre National des Sciences Helieutiques de Boussoura |
The private sector, in this context, includes businesses and companies whose profits are derived from the exploitation of natural resources through logging, mining, oil and gas, and fisheries, but which could contribute to biodiversity conservation by adopting environmentally and socially responsible practices - and by giving financial and logistical support to specific projects. Historically, private-sector support for conservation has not been strong in this region, however, the potential is considerable and early interest from companies such as Rio Tinto Mining and Exploration Ltd. is promising. Airlines, particularly British Airways, have also supported the conservation community with in-kind services and through the design of industry-selected "conservation travel" awards.
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