CEPF Investment Strategy and Program Focus

 

CEPF Strategic Directions	CEPF Investment Priorities
1.  Strengthening institutional capacity of local civil society groups for conservation	1.1  Workshops and/or training programs directed toward local NGOs. Examples: – proposal writing skills – conflict resolution – fundraising techniques – enterprise development – NGO management practices (financial & operational) – communication techniques – law enforcement (guards & rangers)
	1.2  Comprehensive biological surveys and other field activities, with the participation of local conservationists and groups as collaborators and trainers, carried out across the hotspot region involving hands-on training in several conservation-related themes
	1.3  Targeted surveys and assessments conducted to fill gaps identified in current provisions for existing national inventory programs.These targeted areas will be selected based on the following criteria: – Areas rated by the Conservation Priority-setting Workshop as having high needs for biological research – Areas rated from the Conservation Priority-setting Workshop as having high biological value – Areas from which the generated information will have immediate practical value to address priority management challenges – Areas in which biological assessments would be feasible, considering issues of political stability especially
	1.4  Support provided to the development of university networks such as: – exchange programs – collaborative research efforts – study programs
2.  Hotspot biodiversity monitoring system	2.1  Support provided for the establishment of a hotspot-wide biodiversity database. Includes the participation, training and eventual employment of local individuals and groups
	2.2  Team established to maintain the monitoring system: to process collected data, input data into the system (database), ensure necessary dissemination mechanisms are in place and functioning
	2.3  Establishment of a baseline of current knowledge on regional and national level biodiversity indicators supported and incorporated into a Monitoring system. Includes supporting possible links to other systems such as the ECOWAS "Early Warning System" and/or ADB monitoring system.
	2.4  Development of a network to provide access for researchers, policy-makers, NGOs and managers
3.  Promotion of the concept of biodiversity conservation corridors.	3.1  Initiatives that identify threats to biodiversity concerns as well as possible integration opportunities into public and private sectors: – Roundtable policy dialogues – Participatory planning workshops – Regional/Binational conferences to develop best practices for various industries – Agroforestry, watershed management, mining, tourism, conflict resolution, health and other types of targeted projects. – Conservation finance assessments – Private sector conservation opportunities assessment – Targeted support for sustainable proetected area management efforts
	3.2  Opportunities for transfrontier conservation initiatives that involve multi-national participation supported. These might include as examples: Sierra Leone - Liberia where there is a need for: – rapid biological assessments – updating the current state of remote sensing Liberia - Cote d'Ivoire where there is a need for: – updating the state of scientific knowledge – conducting biological surveys – building capacity within forest development authority – reassessment of protected area network –measuring the impact of conservation activities on wildlife – development of regional tourism Cote d'Ivoire - Ghana where there is a need for: – law enforcement training – conservation education training – GIS/landuse management capability training
	3.3  Series of case studies developed and exchanges with Lower Guinea and other regions supporting the development of best practices for implementing transfrontier initiatives supported
	3.4  Mechanisms for corridor coordination
	3.5  Integration of socio-economic issues into biodiversity management and planning
4.  Collaborative public awareness, education, and community outreach programs.	4.1  National level awareness and information campaigns funded to: – educate consumers about impacts of bushmeat trade & unregulated hunting – inform judiciaries about wildlife laws and regulations – conduct flagship species awareness programs (manatees, sea turtles and others)
	4.2  Support to grassroot & NGO activities in innovative programs such as enterprise development and environmental education.
5.  Small grants (Biodiversity Action Fund)	5.1  Fast response mechanism provided to address immediate, unpredicted biodiversity conservation needs within the region. Individual grants not to exceed $10,000.
6.  Reinforce and sustain the conservation gains achieved as a result of the initial 5-year CEPF investment in this region	6.1  Ensure financial sustainability in the hotspot
	6.2  Integrate livelihoods and community participation into the conservation agenda through a mentored small grants program
	6.3  Secure and sustain capacity building gains through targeted conservation action

The CEPF's current investment will focus on the Upper Guinean Forest Ecosystem of the Guinean Forest Hotspot, based on the expert consensus of the Conservation Priority-Setting Workshop. The Lower Guinea portion of the hotspot may become eligible for investment from CEPF in the future. For both CEPF and the CPW there are a variety of justifications to dividing this 11-country hotspot. First, as noted, there is a biogeographic separation of Upper and Lower Guinea by the dry zone known as the Dahomey Gap. Second, because the Guinean Forest Hotspot covers a culturally diverse and politically complex area, a narrow focus is more feasibly implemented than a broad agenda. However, there are some types of conservation action that will be best organized hotspot-wide and this investment strategy provides guidelines that encourage the exchange of lessons between Upper and Lower Guinea and sets in motion hotspot-wide coordination for long-term monitoring.

As noted, the CEPF investment strategy builds on recommendations of priority areas and actions that resulted from the CPW. In response to the threat of fragmentation in West Africa, a primary direction of the CEPF program there is to support connectivity. Fragmentation is not only ecological -it also characterizes the region's political, administrative, and social systems. Consequently, the CEPF seeks to establish connections not only among forest fragments, through either biophysical links or through standardized management approaches, but also among agencies that have not traditionally coordinated their activities across national borders and with regulations and policy instruments that would harmonize approaches to biodiversity conservation.

CEPF priorities will be to counter the most serious threats to biodiversity in this region, including:

• forest loss and fragmentation due to agricultural expansion, exploitative logging and rapid population growth;
  
• ecosystem degradation due to extractive practices such as mining and bushmeat hunting;
  
• limited local capacity for conservation due to insufficient professional human resources, minimal information, lack of regional mechanisms and limited cross-border collaboration; and
  
• institutional elements (policies, regulations, and practices) that undermine conservation effectiveness.

The thematic foci of this investment will include:
Institutional Strengthening, including capacity-building, training, and technical assistance, to help increase of protection for biodiversity by:

• supporting development of conservation professionals;
  
• strengthening protected-area management practices;
  
• commissioning biological surveys and other needed research;
  
• providing resources to analyze the feasibility of using financial incentives to promote biodiversity conservation;
  
• leveraging additional investment for conservation in West Africa; and
  
• strengthening policy instruments and intersectoral support for biodiversity conservation.

Development of Conservation Corridors, to expand the application of conservation practices in a variety of land-use contexts, including:

• agricultural landscapes;
  
• transfrontier areas;
  
• civil conflict zones; and
  
• watersheds.

Increased Public Awareness to broaden support for, and understanding of, biodiversity conservation at local and national levels, including:

• value (cultural and social) and amenities of forests and protected areas;
  
• impact of bushmeat trade and unregulated hunting; and
  
• global significance of local resources.

Hotspot/Regional Biodiversity Database establishment, to monitor and track conservation progress and challenges.

1. Strengthening Institutional Capacities for Conservation Training, Networks, and Protected Area Management
In terms of research and management capacity, the Guinean region lacks expert botanists, wildlife ecologists, environmental educators, protected-area managers, and law enforcement officials. Through the CEPF, training in these related fields will be supported through participation in biological surveys and other field activities; resident programs based at existing and reserves; and scholarships for study at national and foreign institutions. Similarly, efforts to connect professionals through networks of scientists, academics, and area resource managers will be instrumental in reducing the tendency for each country's cadre of professionals to "reinvent the wheel" when addressing conservation challenges.

Innovative protected-area management programs, such as the one overseen by Conservation International at Ghana's Kakum National Park during the late 1990s, provide fine models and natural classrooms for national and regional professional training programs. In the case of Kakum, this includes a very successful ecotourism strategy that could benefit biodiversity conservation efforts at other national parks and nature reserves throughout the Guinean Forest Hotspot. The ecotourism aspect of such training could also attract partners and support from the private sector.

Along the border of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, vast cultivated areas have fragmented forests, and there is well-organized, but illegal, commercial surface mining and extraction of non-timber forest products within the region's system of forest reserves and protected areas. A critical need in this region is training in law enforcement, conservation education, and GIS and land-use management techniques to support biodiversity conservation.

While working with the scientific and conservation communities, efforts should also focus on training and employing an appropriate number of law enforcement officials (guards and rangers) for those same protected areas. This is one of the best ways to reduce threats to biodiversity within parks and reserves due to human encroachment and illegal extractive activities. Significantly increased law enforcement may be the most effective way to curtail bushmeat hunting, which should be halted within protected areas. A commitment to the enforcement of existing wildlife laws also presents an opportunity for the CEPF to leverage considerable funding from other sources, such as from the pool of multilateral and bilateral donors that are supporting Côte d'Ivoire's PCGAP.

The next step, and just as important, will be to develop approaches for long-term ecological monitoring of wildlife populations and ecosystem functions within existing protected areas. This initiative should build on professional expertise already in place and should increase the number of conservation professionals at work within the region's national protected area systems to an effective level.

As Côte d'Ivoire's PCGAP becomes operational, it will be necessary to bridge support for essential operations of the Ministry of Construction and Environment and the Directorate of Nature Conservation. To ensure that tens of millions of dollars of future funding from multilateral and bilateral sources are put to the best use, a relatively modest amount of CEPF funding could be used in the short term by civil society to support the efforts of the appropriate national partner agencies, especially those that focus on protected areas of the Krahn-Bassa/Sapo/Grebo/Taï-N'Zo Complex in southwestern Côte d'Ivoire.

Also in Côte d'Ivoire, as well as in Liberia, there is a trend toward involving NGOs (such as Côte d'Ivoire Nature and the Society for the Conservation of Nature in Liberia) in the management of national protected areas. CEPF support of such collaborations could add a new dimension and broader support to government programs that are currently under funded and understaffed. The resumption of management efforts in Liberia's Sapo National Park, following years of abandonment during the country's civil war, would be a good focal point for such support.

Research: Catalyzing Comprehensive Biological Surveys in Priority Areas
As noted earlier, there is inadequate information about biodiversity in the existing protected areas of the Guinean Forest Hotspot. Current data were assembled for the CPW, and the results reflect multiple geographic and thematic gaps. A series of surveys is needed to fill those gaps. Provisions for a number of these targeted surveys already exist in national inventory programs to be funded by multilateral and bilateral donors; such funding would reduce the need for, and would complement, CEPF support for this effort.

The CPW assessment acknowledged limited research capacity in most countries in the region. The institutions and experts involved recommended the integration of training, capacity building, and international teams in all survey work undertaken. Economies of scale, including bilingual efforts, are recommended in order to stimulate collaboration among colleagues in neighboring countries and to stimulate additional national-level efforts based on international projects.

Before surveys are conducted, a thorough investigation of previous information from these areas is in order. Targets will include:

• areas rated by the CPW as having significant needs for biological research;
  
• areas rated by the CPW as having high biological value;
  
• areas for which the generated information will have immediate practical bearing on priority management challenges; and
  
• areas in which biological assessments would be feasible, taking political stability into account.

During the CPW, participants were asked to rate priority areas according to research needs. The areas prioritized for further scientific research in three or more of the thematic groups (Mammals, Birds, Insects, Reptiles and Amphibians, Plants, Freshwater and Marine) are (as shown in Figs. 3 and 4):

• A3 - Loma-Tingi Hills Complex (Birds, Insects and Freshwater)
  
• A4 - Scarvies Riverine Forest (Mammals, Plants, Marine)
  
• B8 - Gola/Ziama Complex (Birds, Insects, Plants)
  
• C2 - Eastern Liberian Moist Lowland Forest/Sapo National Park (Mammals, Insects, Plants)

Such inventories would provide the basis for an ongoing biodiversity monitoring network that would provide researchers and policy makers with access to constantly updated information in the form of an early warning system. Currently, the lack of reliable data precludes measurement of forest cover and biodiversity in the region. There is no established baseline from which to calculate change. With reliable data, threats to biodiversity will be more easily detected and mitigated. Additionally, biological research stations remain undeveloped in the region. Their roles -not only as sources of new information, but in maintaining a management presence in protected areas- merit attention and long-term financial support.

Institutional Assessments and Policy Instruments
Long-term funding for conservation is inadequate throughout the region. Funding opportunities in the region are limited and financial mechanisms to create conservation funds have not been adequately explored. Similarly, policy instruments to create incentives to conserve, or elimination of incentives that are barriers to biodiversity conservation, have rarely been analyzed or considered. Varying regulations between countries create a mosaic of management prescriptions that result in the region's fragmented approaches to ecosystem management, especially in shared watersheds.

The CEPF will seek to leverage a range of assessments of policy and regulatory instruments to evaluate their potential for resolving barriers to conservation. These include support to improve enforcement of laws, to strengthen regulations, to assess potential financing mechanisms and/or incentives that, where appropriate, can influence land use trends. In Ghana, the creation of the Ghana Heritage Conservation Trust has broken new ground in creating conservation funds that support protected areas. Similarly, efforts in Côte d'Ivoire to create a parastatal parks management agency that draws on international support for funding has led to re-examination of national policies and their modification to support biodiversity. While CEPF will not fund the capitalization of trust funds, nor will it provide resources for conservation set-asides, it will provide funds to evaluate the feasibility of such mechanisms. Private sector engagement will be sought as well in key corridors. Conservation International's new Center for Environmental Leadership in Business (CELB) has already committed matching funds and expertise to assess the most strategic private sector conservation opportunities across the region and will provide technical assistance to engage corporations thought to have the greatest opportunities for investment.

2. Establishing a Hotspot Biodiversity Monitoring System
Concurrent with the biological surveys would be the development of a regional biodiversity database, mostly archiving biological information regarding the existing national parks, nature reserves and wildlife sanctuaries. The database would also serve as a repository for information about Guinean forests currently unprotected, which is essential to the broader long-term biodiversity conservation goals for the region. This database project like the surveys, may need to be managed initially by foreign specialists, but it would provide employment and significant training opportunities for their West African counterparts.

Building an operational monitoring system to evaluate trends in the Upper Guinea Forest requires a multifaceted approach addressing biological systems, socioeconomic factors, and institutional capacities. First, a standard monitoring protocol is needed to make accurate measurements of indicators used to correlate relationships within the ecosystem. Identifying gaps in scientific efforts, and establishing geographic priorities for research, will help focus investment and incorporate the best scientific methodology available. Ideally, a network of institutions staffed with local biologists in each of the six West African countries will be developed to provide the necessary capacity to survey and monitor the status of critical species and habitats.

This strategy will be tailored to the specific national contexts, including institutional capacity, ecological and biological significance, and socioeconomic threats. Establishing a baseline of knowledge at a country level is required in order to implement the protocol. In addition to conducting surveys and developing a regional biodiversity database, CEPF support will be used to strengthen the reference libraries and information management systems of key national NGOs and to promote independent, longer-term ecological studies by West African biologists. This includes incorporating current museum collection records for each country's biodiversity into a database to retrieve information from past field surveys - a process that will enhance understanding of the biogeography of the region. Prioritizing areas within the region based on their biological characteristics will provide a rough map of the greatest concentrations of biodiversity and identify areas ripe for field surveys. These priorities will form a baseline of information from which to deduce changes and specific threats.

The last step in this process will be the actual collection and analysis of data specified as inputs into the monitoring strategy. Field data must be well documented, validated, and distributed in a logical package to all stakeholders. Additionally, data must be fed into a monitoring system that allows the evaluation of indicators both temporally and comparatively. Remotely sensed data will be a key input to the system, providing up-to-date information on the extent, condition, and integrity of the forest ecosystem. Two regional organizations are in the process of developing environmental information systems: the African Development Bank, based in Abidjan, developing a centralized knowledge and information system for all 40+ member countries; and ECOWAS, which has taken initial steps to develop an Environmental Monitoring Information System. These initiatives will help to disseminate and store data collected for the monitoring protocol, enhancing government's access to better information concerning biodiversity.

3. Developing Conservation Corridors
Intersectoral Initiatives For Biodiversity Conservation
Success factors are likely to reside as much in sectors and agencies outside of parks and wildlife departments as within them. Thus, CEPF initiatives that successfully integrate biodiversity concerns into other public or private sectors, such as forestry, agriculture, mining, tourism, governance, and development, will broaden conservation impact beyond its traditional and limited scope by expanding stewardship responsibilities and commitments. Such integration will be favored by partnerships that address overlapping areas of interest and responsibility. Recent integration of efforts by the forestry and wildlife sectors in Ghana is one example in which biodiversity assessments of forest reserves contribute to management plans. CEPF support for assessment of forest reserves in other countries in the region would actualize these links between institutions. Similarly, the cocoa sector in the region, especially in Ghana, is becoming cognizant of the nexus between agriculture and biodiversity, and efforts are needed to identify "win-win" solutions and incentives that integrate conservation considerations into agriculture.

The 41 priority areas identified during the CPW (Fig. 2) include fragmented forests and coastal ecosystems. Natural areas found within these priority sites emerge as key foci for place-based CEPF conservation projects and could ultimately function as core areas in larger corridors for protection of biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Of the intact forest remaining in the six-country region, the largest portion (43%) is believed to remain in Liberia. Côte d'Ivoire share is estimated at 28%, Ghana at 16%, Guinea at 8%, Sierra Leone at 5%, and Togo at 0% (though remnant patches still exist).

Transfrontier Collaboration

Of all 41 CPW priority areas, 25% occupy transfrontier lands. Overcoming political and administrative fragmentation, by developing collaborative efforts that focus on the biological and environmental resources shared throughout the Upper Guinea region, will prevent these critical areas from "falling through the cracks" in the region. International support for these key areas will be sought, especially from entities that have regional oversight and which join countries in forums that consider regional issues such as African Development Bank and ECOWAS.

The three largest forest complexes in the region can be viewed as clusters of priority areas, and illustrate comprehensive conservation initiatives in the region. They include the Gola/Lofa/Mano complex of Sierra Leone and Liberia, the Krahn-Bassa/Sapo/Grebo/Taï complex of Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire, and the fragmented forêts classées and forest reserves of eastern Côte d'Ivoire and western Ghana respectively. On a coarse scale, these three clusters range across a west-east continuum of threats dominated by conflict, logging, and agricultural expansion. Each cluster reflects the challenges that would be faced in any of the priority areas they comprise.

Cluster 1: Sierra Leone-Liberia

The Gola/Lofa/Mano Complex represents a mix of lowland forests on the Sierra Leone and Liberia border (A2). This priority area represents the westernmost extent of many plant and animal communities within the Upper Guinea forest ecosystem. Though poorly studied and largely inaccessible by researchers and conservationists in recent years, the area still contains large tracts of contiguous forest for the potential establishment of core-protected areas. These include the Gola Forest Reserves in Sierra Leone and the Lofa-Mano National Forests in Liberia, each of which could be upgraded to National Parks or Strict Nature Reserves. The contiguous nature of these cross-border forests also presents opportunities for transfrontier conservation initiatives between the two countries.

Both the Liberian and Sierra Leonean portions of this complex have experienced a high degree of civil conflict over the past ten years. The highly porous border between Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea to the north has allowed several groups of competing factions to move freely between countries. Since the end of the civil war in Liberia, there are indications of increased settlement, shifting agriculture, hunting and general human disturbance along with the resumption of full-scale logging activities. Furthermore, violence has again flared up in the Liberian portion of this complex and continues to displace local peoples in some areas and to increase pressure from refugees in others. Persistent civil unrest in the Sierra Leone portion of the complex continues to cause tension among government, rebels, and international intervention efforts providing peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance.

Choosing from a range of priority needs for the Gola/Lofa/Mano complex, CPW participants placed an emphasis on first undertaking a rapid biological assessment and, second, updating scientific knowledge, notably the capacity for remote sensing in the area. Furthermore, regional experts noted, "Collaboration with the respective governments of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia is important, with the aim of incorporating management strategies into national conservation action plans."

Cluster 2: Liberia-Côte d'Ivoire

The Krahn-Bassa/Sapo/Grebo/Taï complex contains the largest tract of contiguous forest left in the entire Upper Guinea ecosystem and represents the greatest opportunity to establish and maintain protected areas containing large intact stands of forest. Most of the forests in eastern Liberia (C1-C4) emerged as extremely high regional priority sites and include prospective core areas like Sapo National Park, Krahn-Bassa National Forest, and the Grebo National Forest. Taï National Park (C6) in Cote d'Ivoire is the single largest existing forest protected by a national park in the region and offers a potentially good opportunity for transfrontier conservation along the Liberian border.

In the Liberian portion of the complex (C1, C4, C2, and C3), a range of new disturbances is underway within forest areas believed to be mostly intact. After the civil war, scientists working in the region in 1997 observed little disturbance to areas of forest not formally exploited for timber. In fact, observations indicated that in many areas wildlife had made a comeback during the war. However, since 1998, human settlement, farming, and hunting have steadily advanced into the forest. Such activities have generally followed a pathway opened up by a new Malaysian timber operation that built a major highway into the remaining forest clusters. The operation currently extracts an estimated 50,000-80,000 cubic meters of timber per month, which could destroy the remaining forest blocks in less than five years. Lack of enforcement of existing forestry legislation reflects the limited capacity of the Liberian Forest Development Authority and inadequate environmental governance in general. Scientists participating in the CPW documented the primary threats to the forest ecosystem as timber extraction, road construction, and increased human settlement, which leads to a higher intensity of farming and hunting. Recommended interventions include updating scientific knowledge, conducting biological surveys, building capacity within the forest development authority, and reassessing the protected area network. Major stakeholders in this region include the Oriental Timber Company, the Liberian Forest Development Authority, the Society for Conservation of Nature in Liberia, and a diverse array of local communities from several ethnic groups.

The Ivorian side of the complex (C7, C6, C5) has, by contrast, a host of threats affecting biodiversity. Industrial plantations of cocoa, rubber and palm have increased pressure on the surrounding landscape by drawing in workers who supplement their wages by farming in adjacent forests. Furthermore, human pressure, intensified by the arrival of thousands of Liberian refugees during the 1990s, has continued along the border region. The growing population has increased demand for bushmeat and small-farmer agricultural production. Low-level gold mining also occurs in this area, which threatens to increase erosion and siltation of aquatic systems. Experts at the CPW recommended several specific interventions for the Ivorian side of the complex:

1. taking an inventory of unknown areas to the northwest of Taï National Park on both sides of the Cavally River;
   
2. measuring the impact of conservation activities on wildlife using Taï National Park as a reference point;
   
3. developing a transnational approach to conservation to harmonize wildlife management;
   
4. developing regional tourism as an alternative income source; and
   
5. investigating the potential for upgrading the protection status of the region's protected areas.

Cluster 3: Côte d'Ivoire-Ghana

This complex includes a large number of forest reserves in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. The 10 priority sites in this complex are largely contiguous, providing an opportunity for landscape approaches to conservation that could incorporate existing forest fragments as "core" areas. The existing landscape contains wet evergreen, moist evergreen, and moist semi-deciduous vegetation zones. Several national parks - Bia, Ankasa and Kakum - contain remnant wildlife populations of species typical of the eastern Upper Guinea (i.e. the area east of the Bandama River, Côte d'Ivoire). Sadly, this is the first region to have recorded the extinction of a large mammal, with the recent report of the apparent disappearance of Miss Waldron's red colobus. Until the mid-1970s, this subspecies of red colobus was known in a few localities within this region.

Threats documented by scientists at the Conservation Priority-Setting Workshop include vast areas of cash/food crop cultivation resulting in forest fragmentation, well-organized illegal extraction of non-timber forest products, timber extraction, and commercial-scale surface mining. Recommended responses include training in law enforcement, conservation education, and GIS and land-use management. Experts recommended that long-term conservation strategies for the region include ecological monitoring, community participation, conservation education, land-use management, and rapid assessments and biological inventories.

Conservation Corridor Coordination and Strategies

Fragmentation of landscapes inhibits or alters flows of genetic materials, water, and wind. It also isolates small populations and places biological resources in the fragments at greater risk. Furthermore, fragmentation can lead to piecemeal interventions for conservation when more extensive landscape approaches may be more effective. Corridor feasibility, function and establishment have not been appropriately explored in the region as a means to counteract fragmentation. However, CPW priority areas, especially in clusters, offer opportunities for landscape management and regional planning.

Corridor strategies in these areas, coordinating the integration of multiple sectors and using protected areas as anchors, will be promoted under CEPF as part of CPW follow-up and implementation. The range of activities for corridor development includes biological surveys, aerial photography and remote sensing imagery analyzed in GIS packages, multi-agency planning, enterprise development, and community outreach and awareness. Whether corridors become physical presences in the landscape, or whether they are conceptual patterns that broaden management approaches to include transfrontier efforts or cross-border watersheds, they can serve as valuable units for protecting biological and other natural resources on the ground. Multisector initiatives will also be instrumental in leveraging investments from multiple donors to corridors. Corridor coordination will also be linked clearly with the Hotspot Biodiversity Monitoring System.

4. Public Awareness
Initiatives developed at the local level are essential to the success of larger-scale national and regional conservation programs. These are most often created as collaborations between communities and NGOs. CEPF grants will be directed to such collaborations to support environmental education programs, appropriate agroforestry extension services, the replacement of slash-and-burn agricultural techniques with cash-crop production, ecotourism guide training, and other employment opportunities that biodiversity conservation programs may generate. In the process, CEPF will also be sensitive to the institutional needs of the NGOs involved, and will be prepared to help sustain their continued participation in regional efforts.

Awareness campaigns will also be supported at the national level within countries whose forests constitute the Guinean Forest Hotspot. Broadened impact will result from projects that successfully increase biodiversity awareness among potential partners, decision-makers and the general public. Campaigns to educate consumers about impact of the bushmeat trade, and to inform the judiciary of wildlife laws and regulations, will contribute to efforts to reduce the impact of unregulated hunting. Conservation International's Center for Applied Biodiversity Sciences (CABS) has supported a regional bushmeat assessment workshop and will contribute to a national campaign in Ghana on the subject. The bushmeat trade is a problem requiring a multi-pronged, extensive strategy. Since this is such an important challenge, CEPF resources will focus on supporting additional initiatives, led by CABS and others, to reduce the bushmeat trade, rather than mobilizing to combat the threat independently.

There is a growing trend in Ghana and Guinea for local communities to become involved in conservation planning. CEPF support for such grassroots activities would be most appropriate in communities surrounding existing protected areas based on a model employed by Conservation International at Kakum National Park in Ghana. Kakum has been the site of innovative programs in revenue-sharing, community outreach, enterprise development, agroforestry, and environmental education, all of which can be replicated throughout the region.

There is an urgent need for conservation education in communities that surround forest reserves along the border of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, a region that is currently being ravaged by over-exploitation of forest resources. Education programs would be linked to biological surveys aimed at upgrading protection levels in extractive reserves.

5. Biodiversity Action Fund
In order to respond to unforeseen circumstances that affect biodiversity conservation, and to facilitate inter-institutional coordination and small-scale capacity building, it is recommended that CEPF provide resources to establish a Biodiversity Action Fund. Small grants from the Biodiversity Action Fund will range in size but no single grant will exceed US$10,000.

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