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Celebrating the International Year of Biodiversity with Success Stories from the Field
Working Together for Biodiversity: An effective public-private partnership for Mexico’s protected areas |
A Cause for Celebration
In September 2010, over 400 people gathered in Mexico City to mark the twelfth anniversary of the Fund for Protected Areas (FANP), which began operations in 1998 with a donation by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) via the World Bank. It is fitting that FANP, an innovative endowment fund supporting the conservation of 23 of Mexico’s priority protected areas, celebrated this milestone in 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity. It was a moment to celebrate the biodiversity of Mexico, the fourth most biodiverse country on the planet; and the significant progress of its protected areas system. A unique partnership has played an instrumental role in both protecting this biodiversity and inspiring the growth of the protected area system which will conserve it for the future.
A Unique Collaboration
Mexico is considered one of the world’s megadiverse countries (Mittermeier, 1988) and a center of origin for cultivated species (Ramamoorthy et al., 1988). It has 174 federal protected areas, covering 25,384,818 ha, most of which has been internationally recognized for its importance as World Heritage sites, UNESCO Biosphere Reserves or Ramsar International Wetlands Convention sites . Protected areas are the most advanced proven tool for conserving Mexico’s incredible biological treasure , but their conservation is only possible when managed effectively.
In Mexico, federal decrees regulate the use of land or sea within a protected area, but they respect the ownership of the land, which is largely the property of communities or private land owners. Thus, even more than in many other countries, private and public interests intersect in the management of protected areas, and tight collaboration between government and civil society is required to achieve conservation results.
The Fund for Protected Areas was designed to be a public-private partnership which promotes just this type of crucial collaboration. FANP was born in 1997, when with the approval of the World Bank, the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature (Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza, A.C., FMCN) became the independent repository of $16.48 million in GEF funding given to the Mexican government for biodiversity conservation. FMCN manages FANP investments and channels interest either directly to basic operations or to local partners for innovative conservation of priority protected areas across Mexico, and the government, through the National Commission for Protected Areas (Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas, CONANP), ensures that funds are used for strategic conservation activities.
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NGO: Consejo de los Recursos Naturales de la Región Cañada de Oaxaca, A. C. |
Community Participation Unlike in some countries, protected areas in Mexico are home to people as well as wildlife. A group of 29 communities in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve formed a network that educates residents in the Cañada Oaxaqueña region of the reserve about the importance of protecting local flora and fauna like the Mammillaria cactus, green macaws, cougars and jaguarundis. The network collaborates with protected area personnel to monitor for illegal hunting and poaching. Each community is also developing its own regulations limiting grazing areas to respect key habitat for biodiversity. FANP projects like this one engage protected area residents as key stakeholders in protected area management. |
Advantages Lead to Growth
Creating an endowment within the private institution FMCN guarantees consistent, transparent and independent management of funds across political administrations, and charging CONANP with the application of the fund’s interest ensures that it is used for the conservation of the nation’s highest priority protected areas.
GEF recognized the success of this model in a worldwide study of environmental funds conducted shortly after the beginning of FANP operations. It noted that the endowment structure addresses the immediate need for basic support in protected areas, while providing continuity that allows protected area personnel to make long-term plans and systematic management schemes. Both GEF and an independent review conducted in 2000 concluded that the public-private nature of the scheme was a key component of its success, and that endowment funds did not replace but rather, leveraged, traditional government funds to attract complementary resources from outside donors.
FANP’s success opened the door to a second, $31.1 million, GEF donation in 2002, which was used to expand the fund’s coverage from 10 to 22 protected areas. Disbursements were contingent upon the deposit of equal matching funds from outside donors, and thanks to the generosity of GEF and 13 additional donors, FANP more than quadrupled in size. Its $75.89 million endowment now supports strategic conservation activities in 23 Mexican protected areas, representing 30% of the total area under federal decree.
Based on a decade of experience, the following elements were key for making the public-private partnership effective and achieving FANP’s exciting growth:
- Political will and vision to work on groundbreaking ideas.
- Clear institutional arrangements: CONANP is in charge of protected area management and FMCN is responsible for financial management, oversight and fundraising.
- Social participation to ensure transparency: The participation of all sectors of society at the local, program and national level create a system of checks and balances.
- Accountability: Monitoring in the field and financial audits ensure effective and efficient use of funds.
- Adaptability: FANP reinvents itself as conditions change.
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NGO: Niños y Crías A.C. |
Restoration and Education for Species Protection
Near the Ría Lagartos and Ría Celestún Biosphere Reserves in the Yucatan Peninsula, FANP supports local partner Niños y Crías’s efforts to protect the majestic Caribbean pink flamingo in coordination with CONANP. Niños y Crías restores breeding areas, protects watering and feeding sites and realizes environmental education activities in schools, festivals and workshops for tourism operators. As a result, from 1999 to 2005, the population of pink flamingos in the Yucatan increased from 28,000 to 44,000 individuals. The numbers have dropped slightly due to poor weather patterns in recent years, but the growing pride that residents feel for these emblematic birds, which is reflected in the increasingly common use of the flamingo in home decorating and local crafts, provides hope for their future in the Yucatan. FANP supports projects that integrate diverse techniques to holistically address problems and promote long-term success. |
Long Lasting Benefits
FANP’s success has translated into fiscal, biological, political and social benefits.
The Fund’s growth means that resources channelled to the field increased from $1 million per year in 1998 to $4.3 million in 2009. Over a period of ten years, more than $20 million in endowment interest have been applied to conservation in priority protected areas, an amount that surpasses the amount of the first donation while conserving the capital.
FANP’s monitoring system shows that these funds are making a biological impact. Preliminary results show that land use change within the supported protected areas is lower than in their surrounding areas and that populations of key indicator species within these protected areas remain stable.
FANP has also made an important political impact. The effective management procedures developed by FMCN and CONANP in the FANP areas became models for protected area management around the country and around the world. Mexico only began to engage in active protected area management around 15 years ago. In 1994, it dedicated merely $0.1 million to its protected areas, which had no permanent staff. Tangible results in the protected areas supported by FANP were strategically showcased to help establish CONANP as a recognized entity within the Mexican government and to grow its annual budget to more than US $80 million.
Finally, FANP has made a strong social impact in the protected areas and their surroundings. Because FMCN disburses funds to each area through local partner NGOs and requires that CONANP establish conservation priorities with the input of local advisory committees, FANP has promoted citizen participation and strong inter-sector collaboration from the beginning. This social component became even stronger in 2009 when CONANP’s growth freed resources that were originally used to hire protected area personnel to be used by local NGOs for innovative strategic projects. These projects are funded on a competitive basis and must be elaborated in conjunction with CONANP to address threats identified within each area’s strategic plan. Close coordination between CONANP and the local partners increases potential for project success and promotes participatory, integrated management of the areas.
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NGO: Colectividad Razonatura A.C. |
Sustainable Markets “Chakay,” which comes from the Mayan “Chuuk-Chakay,” meaning “lobster fisherman” is the first sustainable marine brand in Mexico. This innovative project brought together fishermen from six fishing cooperatives and protected area personnel and in the Banco Chinchorro and Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserves in Quintana Roo, Mexico, to establish rules for sustainable harvest in the reserves and to create a brand that identified these cooperatives’ catch as environmentally sustainable and socially responsible. FANP funded the multi-faceted project, which enabled fishermen to share sustainable live fishing techniques and learn the importance of closed seasons and no-take zones, as well as develop a sustainable business model to brand and market their catch. FANP is a leader in funding new economic and social models that further biodiversity conservation.
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Key Components of Success
This unique collaboration of the GEF, the World Bank, the Government of Mexico, the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature, and protected area stakeholders at the national and local level demonstrates one pathway to protected area system sustainability, a key objective of GEF’s investment strategy for protected areas. The elements of success that allowed Mexico’s Fund for Protected Areas to make a significant impact on the protected area system that can be replicated elsewhere include:
- Funding basic operations and strategic planning in protected areas is a critical investment for effective long-term management of protected areas.
- Strong public-private partnerships must be cultivated to ensure effective conservation on the ground.
- Successful models of well-managed protected areas that share knowledge and best practices through networks and learning communities are the best catalysts for change across a diverse system of protected areas.
- GEF funds must be leveraged to attract additional investment from government and other donors, which is most easily accomplished by demonstrating measureable conservation outcomes.
- Promotion of capacity building and leadership skills for government personnel and civil society organizations builds buy-in and ownership for the realization of the long-term goal: protected area system sustainability.
As the global biodiversity community meets in Nagoya, Japan for the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the example of GEF’s investment in Mexico’s protected areas system through the Fund for Protected Areas should provide them inspiration for their negotiations as it demonstrates a clear conservation success defined by partnership, persistence, long-term vision, and a commitment to measurable results: all traits that they will have to embody in the weeks to come.
Project Facts:
Title: Consolidation of the Protected Areas System Project
Total GEF Funding: $31.1 million
Duration: 2002-2010
Title: Protected Areas System Project
Total GEF Funding: $16.48 million
Duration: 1998-2003
For more information, please contact: Andrew Rhodes, Coordinator, Fund for Protected Areas (FANP). arhodes@conanp.gob.mx or visit www.fmcn.org
Editor's note: To celebrate the International Year of Biodiversity, every two weeks we will highlight a GEF project that is creatively addressing the challenges to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity. These examples of good practice in conservation and sustainable use will demonstrate the contributions that biodiversity makes to local and national economies and that halting the loss of biodiversity is indeed possible.