CEPF funding in the region will focus on these strategic themes:
| CEPF STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS |
CEPF INVESTMENT PRIORITIES |
| 1. Strengthen key conservation alliances and networks within integral corridors |
1.1 Support existing alliances such as the Talamanca/Osa/Bocas regional alliance, Osa alliance and Northern Costa Rica working alliance to further key common agendas in advocacy, communication and land tenure efforts through targeted civil society efforts |
| 1.2 Create a coordinating group, led by the NGO community, that will guide conservation actions In the Cerro Silva-Indio Maiz-La Selva Corridor |
| 1.3 Support a civil society effort to integrate and incorporate NGO concerns into CCAD and PPP efforts |
| 2. Connect critical areas through economic alternatives |
2.1 Support NGO efforts to evaluate modalities for establishing additional private conservation areas to integrate connectivity among key areas |
| 2.2 Support civil society efforts and community efforts to establish best practices in coffee, cocoa, and tourism in areas of potential connectivity |
| 3. Promote awareness and conservation of flagship species |
3.1 Implement awareness programs focused on flagship species in order to improve public understanding of the value of biodiversity |
| 3.2 In coordination with UNDP's Small Grants Program, establish an emergency fund to support projects that will help protect critically endangered species |
| 4. Support improved management of key protected areas |
4.1 Support civil society efforts to create participatory management plans in target areas and provide opportunities for civil society to participate in government led planning processes |
| 4.2 Support civil society efforts to establish the Maquenque National Park in northern Costa Rica |
| 4.3 Support civil society efforts to establish protected areas within the Ngobe-Bugle indigenous territory |
| 4.4 Support efforts by the NGO and private sector community to provide financial incentives for private reserves and conservation set-asides |
| 4.5 Support targeted civil society efforts to implement discreet elements of existing management plans |
| 5. Reinforce and sustain the conservation gains achieved as a result of the initial 5-year CEPF investment in this region |
5.1 Support civil society participation in development planning and implementation, focusing particularly on infrastructure projects in southeast Nicaragua and La Amistad in Panama |
| 5.2 Strengthen local governance structures and management capacity in critical areas, focusing primarily on indigenous reserves along the Caribbean |
| 5.3 Build local capacity within the civil society sector |
| 5.4 Support the establishment of sustainable financing mechanisms |
The concept of conservation alliances is central to the CEPF approach. This objective, and opportunity, is especially pertinent to southern Mesoamerica. The success of the strategy presented in this ecosystem profile depends on increased capacity of existing NGO alliances and improved coordination projects. CEPF will focus on existing alliances working to protect the integrity of transnational corridors, which often need extra support. By working with existing alliances with a successful track record, the CEPF can ensure that the organizations are committed for the long term.
Areas such as the Indio Maiz-La Selva Corridor, the southern Talamanca-Osa corridor and northern Talamanca region between Costa Rica and Panama in the La Amistad-Bocas del Toro corridor have such alliances. CEPF funding should support the maintenance and expansion of these structures. Where there is insufficient coordination, such as in northeastern Nicaragua, CEPF should catalyze new alliances.
CEPF support for existing alliances such as the Talamanca-Osa-Bocas regional alliance - a broader working alliance of regional networks - would have a multiplier effect. This group is finalizing an Action Plan that will make specific recommendations on policy, capacity building and maximizing current investments. Very targeted support to this action plan will leverage investment from other partners such as WWF and TNC to fulfill the objectives and vision articulated as part of the Action Plan.
CEPF will support existing alliances such as the Talamanca/Osa/Bocas regional alliance of more than 80 groups representing environmental NGOs, academia, research agencies and government agencies of Costa Rica and Panama. Alliance efforts that may be facilitated by CEPF grants include opportunities for targeted policy work to mitigate the impact of development projects on biodiversity; support to carry out an integral action plan; and ensuring that partners share crucial information with all participants in the alliance.
CEPF will consider supporting the Osa alliance, a geographically targeted alliance formed by civil society groups, national and international NGOs, and government agencies to protect biodiversity in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. Focus for CEPF support may emphasize training to build fundraising and negotiation capacities.
CEPF support for the Northern Costa Rica working alliance - a partnership of local NGOs, research institutions, government agencies, local entrepreneurs and international conservation groups - would enhance civil society efforts to establish the Maquenque National Park and biological corridors between southern Nicaragua and La Selva in Costa Rica.
CEPF could support the Fila Costeña environmental association, a local consortium of communities working to protect the coastal and ridge forests between the Pacific and the Talamanca Mountain Range. This region forms a natural corridor considered critical to the Osa-Talamanca-Bocas action plan.
Strengthening NGO alliances to improve conservation work will enhance partners' ability to formulate clear, coordinated strategies and to leverage CEPF investment in the region to attract targeted new investment. CEPF has the opportunity to help alliances build stronger relationships with regional initiatives by ensuring that the alliances, as representatives of civil society, participate in existing forums, such as the CCAD initiative and the Plan Puebla Panama. This "building block for conservation" is critical to civil society stakeholders' capacity to secure necessary funding, and ultimately contributes to the sustainability of conservation efforts. CEPF will evaluate proposals that create stronger linkages between civil society efforts with the CCAD and the Plan Puebla Panama.
Equally important is the need to strengthen existing networks. For example, CEPF should provide leverage for UNDP's Small Grants Program by working with the alliance of small grants programs to maximize conservation impact in the entire region, including the corridor between La Selva and Nicaragua.
The Bocas del Toro Coalition - a consortium of governmental agencies and civil society representatives formed in 2000 - is working to improve land use patterns in the coastal region of Bocas del Toro, part of the corridor. The coalition aims to update the land use management plan designed in early 2000. CEPF support would leverage existing resources and support key civil society components of the buffer zone activities of the World Bank project in the Panamanian Atlantic Corridor. CEPF investment could also expand successful programs in this region and facilitate their replication by other groups.
CEPF has a strategic role to play in southern Mesoamerica in the effort to strengthen and maintain connections between critical areas. This region contains the last remaining portions of scattered large forest tracts that connect parks and wetlands in the three countries. In the case of Indio Maiz-La Selva, the linkage is the only site in Central America where a large lowland Atlantic forest protected area (Nicaragua's Indio Maiz Biological Reserve) has the potential to maintain its ecological connection with middle-elevation and highland habitats (Costa Rica's Central Mountain Range and Braulio Carrillo National Park). CEPF will support efforts to promote the expansion and creation of private conservation areas to integrate connectivity among Piedras Blancas and Corcovado Parks. CEPF also has the opportunity to support innovative efforts to involve the private sector in conservation and demonstrate links between conservation and sound development.
The Talamanca/Osa/Bocas alliance is working to ensure biological connections between two corridors: the approximately 10,000 hectares joining the Corcovado National Park with the Piedras Blancas National Park, within the Peninsula, and a larger corridor joining the Piedras Blancas National Park on the northern part of the Peninsula to the highlands of Talamanca. One of the best opportunities to achieve this connection with Talamanca would be through best practices in agroforestry and coffee production.
A coastal and terrestrial connection between the Talamancas and the highlands and lowlands of the Tabasara Mountains in Panama - including some coastal, wetlands and marine areas - is crucial. Opportunities to create such connections lie in the Ngobe indigenous territory. CEPF should promote best practices in cocoa and organic banana production for small farmers and environmental education to secure indigenous people's stewardship of lands connecting protected areas.
The Indio Maiz-La Selva area is the most promising to connect the lowland forests of eastern Nicaragua with the middle-elevation forests of the central mountains of Costa Rica and La Selva. The major CEPF effort in this region should be to support the creation of Maquenque National Park in northern Costa Rica. Support in this strategic direction may include evaluating land tenure that will inform and trengthen efforts to establish the park.
CEPF can fill a valuable niche in Mesoamerica by supporting awareness programs built around key and endangered species such as the tapir, jaguar, white-lipped peccary, West Indian manatee, harpy eagle, scarlet macaw, great green macaw, and resplendent quetzal.
While many environmental education programs have been initiated in the MBC as a whole, CEPF would focus on targeted initiatives in the southern region of Mesoamerica that build on the characteristics of key species. RARE is one organization that has demonstrated and implemented such programs.
CEPF will also evaluate the feasibility of establishing an emergency fund for projects that support small-scale and targeted efforts to conserve critically endangered species in the southern region of Mesoamerica. This component would provide small grants (less than $10,000) to support efforts aimed at protecting the habitats of targeted species or mitigating key threats to their survival. CEPF will consider partnering with the GEF/UNDP Small Grants Program on the creation of this emergency fund. Partnering with UNDP SGP in this region would be cost-effective and ensure complementarity. CEPF and SGP in the southern region of Mesoamerica could thus also explore opportunities to leverage co-financing for projects that fulfill common criteria, and CEPF could learn from the UNDP's efforts in the region.
An additional CEPF priority is to strengthen targeted protected areas in the three priority corridors. Efforts to strengthen protected areas could include development of protected area participatory creation of management plans and capacity-building to implement them; declaration of new protected areas; and actual implementation, in the short term, of management plans. At the policy level, CEPF will assist civil society in selected protected area management planning processes.
Targeted management plans include those under development for the Talamanca ecoregion and those in southeast Nicaragua (Los Guatuzos and Rio San Juan) and northern Costa Rica. There are opportunities to create new protected areas in key parts of the MBC (e.g. Maquenque National Park).
The CEPF will consider supporting the establishment of protected areas in the Ngobe-Bugle indigenous territory in Bocas del Toro. This indigenous territory is one of the largest indigenous lands in Panama with over 600,000 hectares. On its Atlantic side, large portions of forests still remain, and the indigenous leaders are willing to set aside some communal land for biodiversity conservation. The area also represents the only connection between the Talamanca Mountain Range in Panama and the forests approaching the Panama Canal watershed.
CEPF may also consider providing targeted support to aid in civil society efforts to implementation of existing management plans in key areas in Bastimentos Marine Park in Panama, La Amistad International Park in both Costa Rica and Panama, Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica and Indio Maiz Biological Reserve in Nicaragua.
One opportunity for CEPF to support connections within the critical corridors is to evaluate opportunities to establish financial incentives for private reserves and conservation set-asides. Possible projects could establish private reserves connecting important sites.
Previous: CEPF Niche for Investment / Next: Sustainability