CEPF's investment in the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Biodiversity Hotspot was guided by the following strategic directions as outlined in the ecosystem profile.

  1. Strengthen protection and management in undercapacitated and emerging protected areas in 3 priority Key Biodiversity Areas.
     
    • 1.1 Support public-private partnerships and civil society initiatives to enable effective management of marine protected areas in the Ponto d’Ouro Partial Marine Reserve in Mozambique and adjacent to the Mkambati and Dwesa-Cwebe reserves in the Pondoland North Coast Key Biodiversity Area in South Africa.
       
    • 1.2 Promote innovative approaches to strengthen protection and management in the Licuati Forests and Eastern Swazi Lebombo Key Biodiversity Area in Mozambique and Swaziland.
       
  2. Expand conservation areas and improve land use in 19 Key Biodiversity Areas through innovative approaches.
     
    • 2.1 Develop and implement innovative approaches to expand private and communal protected areas, particularly for habitats underrepresented in the current protected area network.
       
    • 2.2 Integrate conservation practice into land-reform agreements to expand conservation management and sustain livelihood opportunities.
       
  3. Maintain and restore ecosystem function and integrity in the Highland Grasslands and Pondoland corridors.
     
    • 3.1 Develop and implement innovative projects that expand conservation management and benefit people in threatened catchment, freshwater and estuarine ecosystems.
       
    • 3.2 Improve implementation of environmental regulations to maintain functional ecosystem corridors, particularly rivers and coastal zones.
       
    • 3.3 Support community stewardship initiatives that will catalyze sustainable financing from local carbon markets.
       
    • 3.4 Improve effectiveness of government-sponsored large-scale natural resource management programs in the corridors by improving knowledge and support for implementation.
    •  
  4. Create an enabling environment to improve conservation and management of Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany priority sites.
     
    • 4.1 Expand and strengthen civil society by supporting training and further educational opportunities for the staff of civil society organizations in Mozambique and Swaziland.
       
    • 4.2 Establish and strengthen institutional arrangements that will increase and coordinate civil society participation and facilitate lessons sharing to promote linkages that ensure effective conservation action at a broad scale.
       
  5. Provide strategic leadership and effective coordination of CEPF investment through a regional implementation team.
     
    • 5.1 Build a broad constituency of civil society groups working across institutional and political boundaries towards achieving the shared conservation goals described in the ecosystem profile.
       

Read more about CEPF's strategy in the hotspot in our ecosystem profile (PDF - 2.8 MB).