PPI Partner: CEPF

The Partnership Fund for Critical Ecosystems (www.cepf.net) is a joint initiative of the French Development Agency, Conservation International, the European Union, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, of John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank. A fundamental goal of CEPF is to enable, through the providing of grants, the civil society to engage in the conservation of the most endangered terrestrial biological resources, known as biodiversity hotspots.

In the Guinean Forests Biodiversity Hotspot of West Africa, which extends from southern Guinea to northwestern Cameroon via the Gulf of Guinea islands, the CEPF strategy aims to provide technical and financial means to local, regional, national and international civil society organizations to establish cross-sectoral and cross-border long-term partnerships. CEPF wants these beneficiaries to demonstrate models that combine biodiversity conservation with sustainable socio-economic development.

In particular, CEPF’s investment (USD 9 million from 2016 to 2021) aims to:

• Allow at least 60 local communities to sustainably manage certain priority sites and / or consolidate ecological connectivity at a landscape level ;
• Target at least 20 Biodiversity Key Areas and 100,000 hectares of production landscapes for better conservation or sustainable use of biodiversity ;
• Incorporate biodiversity conservation provisions into public policies and / or private sector practices into at least 6 conservation corridors ;
• Stabilize or increase the populations of at least 30 globally threatened species ;
• Create at least 15 networks between civil society actors, governments and the private sector to maximize the positive impact on biodiversity ;
• Improve the organizational capacity of at least 50 civil society organizations.

In this hotspot, CEPF entrusted BirdLife International with the responsibility of the Regional Implementation Team (RIT) to provide strategic leadership for its investment. Together, USD 1.7 million grants had been already awarded to 14 organizations. The coming months will focus on the awarding of new grants following the call for proposals closed at the end of 2017, as well as a call for proposals for a mentoring initiative, at the national level, where international organizations having proven capabilities in specific areas can provide relevant guidance to local organizations (including CEPF beneficiaries) in the medium term.

CEPF also wished to join the Alliance around the PPI in order to pool resources, create synergies and capitalize on the emergence of environmental organizations that bring changes and innovations, working together to influence public policies and private sector actors in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.

For more informations : https://www.cepf.net/our-work/biodiversity-hotspots/guinean-forests-west-africa