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In the context of the CBD COP10, around 50 people from several countries and organizations attended the GEF side event on Biodiversity Programs in West and Central Africa, including two Secretaries of State from Guinea Bissau. The three speakers (from Benin, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Guinea Bissau) talked about their experiences with the GEF, highlighting the innovative partnerships on the field with traditional authorities in Benin, as well as the work done to build a trust fund for conservation to protect the Savannah National Parks; the development of capacities of the Congolese Institute Nature Conservation; and the long term partnership with the GEF in Guinea Bissau.
All these experiences are included in the publication launched during the side event “Biodiversity Conservation in West and Central Africa”. The discussion that followed focused on the recommendations included in the publication. Many participants shared their own experience stressing some key points as the need of synergy between donors, the role of monitoring and adaptive management, the importance of linking biodiversity to economics, the need to combine nature conservation approaches and the sustainable use of biodiversity to improve the standard of living of local people.
Some countries have developed an enabling environment that makes possible the development of sustainable financing mechanisms: A network of African Trust Funds has notably been initiated in September this year.
Tomas Barbosa, Secretary of State for the Environment in Guinea Bissau shared his satisfactory experience in working with the GEF, mentioning the GEF long-term support, the flexibility of its instrument in working on innovative aspects (trust fund for conservation, terrestrial and forest protected areas). He concluded his intervention highlighting that Guinea Bissau has planned to increase its protected area coverage towards 24 percent of the territory.