A US-based fund will be injecting US$6.65 million into conservation efforts in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Mozambique and Swaziland in the next 5 years. Local non-profit organization the Wildlands Conservation Trust has been nominated to manage and co-ordinate the grant and recently launched the project at the Hilton Hotel in Pietermaritzburg.
Representatives from many of South Africa’s leading conservation NGO’s were present at the launch, including members of Conservation International, Botanical Society of South Africa, WWF-SA and WESSA. Also represented were conservation authorities from the Eastern Cape, Swaziland and KwaZulu-Natal.
The Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund (CEPF) based in Washington DC is a joint initiative of the World Bank, l’Agence Française de Dévelopement, Conservation International, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. CEPF aims to provide strategic assistance to non-government organizations and other private sector partners to help conserve biodiversity hotspots.
‘Hotspots’ is a term coined by Conservation International to describe ‘the richest and most threatened reservoirs of plant and animal life on earth’. The Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Biodiversity Hotspot is one of these regions, along with two others identified in South Africa (the Succulent Karroo and Cape Floristic regions).
The region spans an area of nearly 275,000 km², stretching from Xai-Xai in Mozambique in the north, to Port Elizabeth in the south and is home to a number of critically endangered and threatened plant and animal species. The area is under increasing threat from agricultural and industrial development, mining, immense increases in human population densities and changes in local weather patterns as a result of climate change.
Over the past two years CEPF have developed an ecosystem profile and investment strategy for the area. Wildlands will now lead the implementation of the grant which involves the management and selection of proposals, dissemination of funding, co-ordination and sharing of idea’s and building capacity and a shared vision for the region.
The grant will be used to support up to 40 civil society-run projects in the next 5 years with the aim of building capacity; strengthening the protection and management of under-capacitated and emerging protected areas; expanding and linking conservation areas and restoring ecosystem functioning.
Dan Rothberg, CEPF Grant Director, said, “This investment brings unprecedented funding and exposure to the conservation of biodiversity and participation of civil society in the area”. Rothberg also highlighted the importance of building capacity and developing partnerships between well-established civil society organizations and smaller, developing groups, “so that at the end of the 5 years these [smaller] organizations will be better off, and better able to do their work.”
Dr Roelie Kloppers, Programme Manager for Wildlands, said: “We are extremely excited about this amazing opportunity to work with CEPF in developing civil society’s role in conservation in the Hotspot. We are looking forward to closer ties with CEPF and its donors over the next 5 years and hope to leave a lasting positive impact on the biodiversity and the people living in these areas”. The Wildlands Conservation Trust has with a 20 year history in biodiversity conservation with a focus on community participation.
A second call for proposals for grants has been released in November. Interested non-governmental organisations, community groups, private enterprises, and other civil society applicants may apply for funding. Interested parties should click here for more information and contact the Wildlands Regional Implementation Team cepf-rit@localhost/import-data-post.
For more information contact Dr Roelie Kloppers or Simone Dale on 033 343 6380.
WILDTRUST (registered as the Wildlands Conservation Trust - IT No: 4329/1991/PMB)