The IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation, together with Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional (AECI) and Fundación Biodiversidad held the Conference on Financing Protected Areas in the Mediterranean. In Seville, Spain, between 29 and 31 January 2006. With the collaboration of Junta de Andalucía.
Background
It was noted at the Vth IUCN World Parks Congress (Durban, South Africa, 2003), as well as at the Murcia Conference on Protected Areas in the Mediterranean Context (Spain, March 2003), that a major effort was needed in Financing Protected Areas in order to increase their number and improve their management. The CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas adopted at COP7 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2004) also calls on the Parties of the Convention to ensure financial sustainability of Protected Areas (PAs) and of national and regional systems of PAs. In addition, one of the 3rd IUCN World Conservation Congress in Bangkok Resolutions requested all Mediterranean countries and IUCN to increase cooperation in order to establish terrestrial and marine PAS in the Mediterranean region and improve their management.
The PAs in the Mediterranean significantly contribute to sustaining the economy of the region; the PAs provide freshwater flows, important resources for hydropower, for recreation and tourism, for fisheries, biodiversity and other ecosystem services. A major effort needs to be made to solve state of underfunding and unpredictable funding fluctuation. Only between 3% and 15% of the investment needed for PAs in non-EU Mediterranean countries is covered, even though the region is one of the world’s hot spots in biodiversity.
The goal of the Conference was:
To enhance knowledge and cooperation on sustainable financing of Protected Areas.
To achieve this goal, the conference pursued the following specific objectives:
- Share experience of sustainable financing among partners, governments, cooperation agencies and the private sector;
- Provide information on funding resources for protected areas in the region;
- Facilitate the creation of networks among countries of the Mediterranean and with financing bodies to promote the exchange of knowledge and lessons learned;
- Highlight experiences in sustainable financing of protected areas.
This CD provides all the technical input related to this initiative, including information on Financing Protected Areas, technical papers, and presentations as well as other interesting technical and policy-related documents.
For further information on Financing Protected Areas, please contact:
IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation
Parque Tecnológico de Andalucía. Calle Marie Curie, 35, Campanillas 29590 Malaga, Spain
Tel : ++ 34 9 52 028 430
Fax :++ 34 9 52 028 145
Email: uicnmed@iucn.org
Web site: www.uicnmed.org
For more information: andres.alcantara@iucn.org |
