Artículo | 14 Jun, 2016

Global Environment Facility Council approves swath of new projects to be implemented by IUCN

At its 50th session held in Washington DC in early June, the Council of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) approved several major initiatives led by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

 

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Photo: JP Palasi

The main project, The Restoration Initiative - Fostering innovation and integration in support of the Bonn Challenge, is a programme led by IUCN which will be implemented in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in the Central African Republic, Cameroon, the DR of Congo, China, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sao Tome and Principe, and Tanzania.

The overall grant for this programme is US$ 54 million, out of which US$ 18 million will be directly managed by IUCN and its partner countries –  Cameroon, China, Guinea-Bissau and Myanmar. The Restoration Initiative is set to bring co-financing contributions in excess of US$ 200 million.

In Chad, in implementing Reconnect –  Restoring Ecological Corridors in Western Chad, IUCN will partner with the Ministry of Environment and the German Development Cooperation Agency (GIZ) to restore forests and drylands for multiple land and forests benefits. The GEF grant allocated for this project is US$ 5.3 million and the total amount for the project (including co-financing contributions from other donors) is US$ 24 million.

These two IUCN initiatives bring the overall portfolio of projects implemented by IUCN through its new GEF Project Agency status to a total of US$ 38 million, most of which comes from the GEF focal areas on Land Degradation, Sustainable Forest Management and Climate Change Mitigation.

In addition, the GEF Council also approved US$ 3.5 million for the Healthy Ecosystems for Rangeland Development (HERD) project  in Egypt and Jordan, for which IUCN will act as Executing Agency under the United Nations Environment Programme.

For more information, please contact the IUCN GEF and Global Climate Fund Coordination Unit. 

For more details on the forest restoration aspect of this work see this related story