Integrated Management of Land-Based Activities in the Sao Francisco Basin

This project develops a watershed management program for the Rio Sao Francisco Basin, which discharges into the South West Atlantic Large Marine Ecosystem and Brazil Current. The strategic, integrated and sustainable program for the management of this system and its coastal zone to be formulated during this project will address the physical, biological, chemical and institutional root causes of the progressive degradation which is affecting the basin and, particularly, the coastal ecosystems. The project will focus on the use of economic instruments and catalyze implementation activities with incremental costs to restore and sustain the coastal zone through improved river basin management included in the watershed management program. The project will complement basin-scale interventions by the Government of Brazil, financed in part from national sources and by The World Bank through the Program for Water Development (PROAGUA) and other donors. The project forms the Latin American demonstration project under the Global Program of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA) GEF operational program element.