Global Environmental Facility Poised to Fund Conservation Projects
10/13/98
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Title: Global Environmental Facility Poised to Fund Conservation Projects
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 10/13/98
WASHINGTON, DC, October 13, 1998 (ENS) - Environmental conservation
and protection projects valued at $151 million are on the agenda as
the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) opens a three-day meeting in
Washington Wednesday.
Today GEF officials held a meeting with nongovernmental organizations
accredited to the Facility which include dozens of groups from the
giant U.S. based Nature Conservancy and Environmental Defense Fund to
the Youth Research Association of Chinese Ecological Society.
The GEF provides grants and concessional funding to countries for
projects and programs that protect the global environment and promote
sustainable economic growth. The GEF is striving for universal
participation; currently 156 countries are participants.
The Facility, originally set up as a pilot program in 1991, was
restructured and replenished with over US$2 billion in 1994, to cover
costs of activities that benefit the global environment in four focal
areas: climate change; biological diversity; international waters; and
stratospheric ozone. Activities concerning land degradation, primarily
desertification and deforestation, as they relate to the four focus
areas, are also eligible for funding.
Both the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on
Biological Diversity have designated the GEF as their funding
mechanism.
GEF projects and programs are managed through three implementing
agencies: the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Environment
Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank. The GEF Secretariat functions
independently from the three implementing agencies.
PROVIDING SOLAR POWER FOR RURAL AREAS
On a global scale at this week's meeting, the GEF may approve $10
million for the Solar Development Corporation (SDC) to be implemented
by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. The SDC concept
originates from a unique partnership between the World Bank Group and
a number of U.S. charitable foundations. It is a response to the gap
between the enormous potential demand for electricity in off-grid
markets and the very limited supply to date of off-grid power from
photovoltaic (PV) systems.
The objective of SDC is to increase the delivery of solar home systems
and bring environmentally clean electricity to rural households in
developing countries. The anticipated volume of PV home systems to be
installed during the project ranges from 670,000 to 820,000 units.
SDC has a target capitalization of US$50 million, with approximately
$32 million of investment capital devoted to an Investment Fund and
$18 million of grant funds devoted to business advisory services.
SDC will invest in private sector companies involved in rural,
commercially sustainable PV activities, including the distribution,
sale, lease-hire, or financing of PV solar home systems. SCD will also
provide financing to local financial institutions who will service
such companies.
PROTECTING EAST ASIA'S SEAS
A project for regional environmental protection and management of the
East Asian seas could be approved for 16.22 million. Serious
transboundary environmental challenges exist to the sustainable
development of the coastal and marine areas in this region arising
from population pressure and national economic development.
This project attempts to reduce or remove the critical barriers to
effective environmental management - inadequate policy, limited
investment, and differing institutional capacities of countries in the
region.
The project design integrates two management frameworks tested in the
GEF pilot phase. First, integrated coastal management, which addresses
land-water interactions and the negative impacts of human activity;
and second, risk assessment and risk management which focuses on human
activities and their impact in sub-regional seas.
Multiple international waters projects are being targeted to reverse
transboundary environmental degradation of the shared waters.
PROJECT PROPOSALS UP FOR COUNCIL APPROVAL
* Arid Zone of Africa: Management of Indigenous Vegetation for the
Rehabilitation of Degraded Rangelands (UNEP,UNDP). GEF: $9.05
million
* Belize: Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Barrier Reef
Complex (UNDP) GEF: $5.35 million
* Benin: Decentralized Rural Energy (World Bank) GEF: $1.14 million
* Caspian Environmental Programme: Addressing Transboundary
Environmental Issues (UNDP, UNEP, World Bank) GEF: $8.34 million
* Cuba: Priority Actions to Consolidate Biodiversity Protection in
the Sabana-Camaguey Ecosystem (UNDP) GEF: $3.89 million
* Ecuador: Monitoring the Galapagos Islands, impacts of fishing and
tourism (World Bank) GEF: $941,350
* Georgia: Conservation of Forest Ecosystem (World Bank) GEF: 9.05
million
* India: National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (UNDP) GEF:
$0.97 million
* Kenya: Removal of Barriers to Energy Conservation and Energy
Efficiency in Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (UNDP) GEF: $3.19
million
* Pakistan: Mountain Areas Conservancy Project (UNDP) GEF: $10.6
million
* Papua New Guinea: Forestry and Conservation (World Bank) GEF: 17.3
million
* Paraguay: Paraguayan Wildlands Protection Initiative (UNDP) GEF:
$9.2 million
* Peru: In-situ Conservation of Native Cultivars and their Wild
Relatives (UNDP) GEF: $5.22 million
* Thailand: Chiller Replacement Program (World Bank) GEF: $2.50
million
* Togo: Decentralized Rural Energy (World Bank) GEF: $1.14 million
* Uzbekistan: ODS Phase out Program (UNDP) GEF: $3.32 million
* Multi-country: GEF Small Grants Programme (UNDP) GEF: 31.62
million
* Multi-country: GEF Country Workshops (UNDP, UNEP, World Bank) GEF:
$3.51 million
Environment News Service (ENS) 1998