09/03/2006 - Berlin, Germany
– German Development Minister Heidemarie
Wieczorek-Zeul has pledged €5 million to
support the establishment of a transboundary
nature conservation fund in the southern
Caucasus region. Additional aid for the
fund from international donors is expected
to see the amount rise to €40. “Nature doesn’t
know borders,” the minister said at the
start of a 3-day ministerial conference
on nature protection in the Caucasus organized
by the German Federal Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development (BMZ), KfW development
bank and WWF-Germany. “That’s why cross-border
cooperation is crucial for the national
parks in the Caucasus to be viable.”
The minister also stressed that the achievements
in conservation are the results of a continuous
dialogue between NGOS, academics and concerned
governments.
The conservation fund aims to cover half
the operational costs for the most important
conservation areas in this biodiversity-rich
region. The governments of Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Georgia are expected to cover the other
half. This makes the fund an integral part
of the conservation strategy, developed
by WWF and KfW, in cooperation with experts
and government representatives from the
region. The effort also represents a major
contribution to the United Nations Convention
on Biological Diversity by the states from
the southern Caucasus.
The fund is setting new standards for nature
conservation as only the interest is to
be used for project work, leaving the capital
stock intact. This will secure permanent
financing of park management, rangers and
research.
“Our bank has already made positive experiences
in the past with the establishment of the
Borjormi-Kharagauli-National Park in Georgia,
the first national park in the region,”
said Ingrid Matthäus-Maier, member
of the KfW-group Board of Managing Directors.
“The planned trust fund is an innovative
tool to secure the sustainability of the
bank’s investments in conservation.”
According to WWF, the Caucasus region —
covering some 50 million hectares and home
to an extraordinarily high level of biodiversity
— belongs to the 200 most important ecoregions
on this planet. Its most prominent species
are the Caucasus leopard, lynx and the brown
bear.
“No state can protect the highly threatened
Caucasus leopard alone,” said WWF-Germany
CEO Dr Peter Prokosch. “This is why the
launch of this regional conservation fund
is so important.”
