BIOPAMA Looks Ahead to the Forthcoming IUCN World Parks Congress 2014

24 July 2013

Plans and proposals for the IUCN World Parks Congress in November 2014 continue to spread throughout the IUCN network with a mid-July presentation on the Congress by Nick Cox, BIOPAMA Manager, at the IUCN Regional Office for Mesoamerica and the Caribbean (ORMA) based in Costa Rica.

Discussions during Nick’s visit to ORMA touched on the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014 as a key event for BIOPAMA. The WPC’s aim is to position protected areas within the goals of economic and community wellbeing. Its legacy, aligned with BIOPAMA, is to develop capacity to achieve biodiversity conservation goals, while promoting good governance and effective participation of local communities, including indigenous groups, and to propose inspiring nature-based solutions for climate change and sustainable development.

Nick also participated in the Mid-Term Evaluation of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund’s investment in the Caribbean Islands Hotspot, held in Kingston, Jamaica, an opportunity which allowed him to establish contacts and strengthen cooperative links with key organizations of interest for BIOPAMA in the Caribbean. The CEPF is a joint initiative of l’Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the World Bank, whose main goal is to support the work of civil society in developing and implementing conservation strategies, as well as in raising public awareness on the implications of loss of biodiversity. The CEPF provides US$6.9 million over five years to the Caribbean Islands Biodiversity Hotspot. The mid-term review workshop was hosted by IUCN member organization the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), which chairs the IUCN Caribbean Regional Committee in collaboration with the CEPF Secretariat. The activities in BIOPAMA will complement this investment, and address specific capacity building and institutional needs in the region.

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