21/03/2006 - Curitiba,
Brazil – WWF has developed a new financial model
in the Mesoamerican Reef that will help improve
the long-term management of important coastal and
marine protected areas globally.
The Mesoamerican Reef – a priority
ecoregion for WWF’s work worldwide – covers a large
territory from the Bay Islands in the north of Honduras
to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, including the
Guatemalan and Belizean coasts. However, natural
resources in some of the area’s crucial protected
areas are often poorly managed.
The new tool, which is aimed at
all individuals and organizations working on protected
areas, helps generate detailed information on the
management, coordination and administrative costs
of each individual protected area, as well as an
entire network of coastal and marine protected areas.
It collects and analyzes information on expenditures,
income, projections and economic requirements for
a period of ten years.
In addition, the model proposes
various scenarios on present and future financial
prospects, which will help identify and anticipate
potential funding gaps and build a business plan.
WWF stresses that important human
and material resources are needed to deal adequately
with the numerous and complex issues linked to the
management of protected areas, and that efficient
use of financial resources is essential.
“One of the greatest challenges
for long-term conservation is to provide a stable
stream of income and revenues to sustain management
activities such as regular patrols, public education,
infrastructure maintenance and scientific research,”
said Carlos Morales, Programme Manager for WWF Central
America.
“Protected area managers have
been waiting years for such a planning tool. It
will revolutionize their way of working.”
The new tool was developed by
WWF as part of the global conservation organization's
Large Conservation Programme Management project,
with the support of the Mesoamerican Reef Fund (MAR
Fund). More than 90 experts in Guatemala, Honduras,
Belize and Mexico contributed to developing the
model, which has already underwent several trial
runs. All the experts who supervised the trials
showed great interest in the new model.
“The big advantage of this flexible
tool is that it can be used for each separate protected
area and to model an entire network — not only in
Central America but also in other regions of the
world,” said María José Gonzalez,
Director of the MAR Fund.
END NOTES:
• WWF and the MAR Fund presented
this new financial model at a round table discussion
co-hosted by the governments of Senegal and Indonesia
during the 8th UN Conference of the Parties to the
Convention on Biological Diversity. The event —
co-sponsored by WWF, The Nature Conservancy and
the International Coral Reef Action Network — will
focus on effective strategies and tools which can
be used to establish well managed marine protected
areas.
• WWF’s Global Marie Programme
target for marine protected areas is the establishment
and implementation of a network of effectively managed,
ecologically representative MPAs covering at least
10 per cent of the world's seas by the year 2020.
This is a minimum target which WWF would like to
see the Parties to the CBD adopt during the COP8
discussion of targets and timelines for the Marine
and Coastal Biodiversity programme of work.
