The government of Spain is committed to supporting the implementation of the Convention’s Programme of Work on Protected Areas in 2010-11. Spain's support is being managed by the United Nations Environment Programme.

Funded Expressions of Interest

Cameroon Conserving the Cross River Gorilla Landscape: Piloting a landscape-scale approach to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) The Gulf of Guinea is an area of known high biodiversity importance. Despite the presence of a host of endangered and endemic species, biodiversity is under increasing threat from a number of human activities. This project aims to protect both highland and lowland corridors in the Cross River Gorilla landscape in order to effectively manage unprotected forests, and the ecosystem services they provide, thus securing local livelihoods and preserving important carbon sinks.

Guinea-Bissau Renforcement de la surveillance dans les aires marines protégées de la Guinée-Bissau Due to its geographic location, the coastal area of Guinea-Bissau remains remarkably enriched with biodiversity and relatively abundant natural resources. These resources play a vital role in ensuring food security and producing economic benefits for the local population. In order to preserve the biodiversity, the Government of Guinea-Bissau created a system of protected areas, covering 12% of its territory. Unfortunately, the institution responsible for the management of these protected areas, the Institute of Biodiversity and Protected areas, faces difficulties ensuring effective monitoring of these protected areas. This project aims to strengthen the management and create effective monitoring of 3 marine protected areas in Guinea-Bissau.

Democratic Republic of the Congo Reboisement intensif dans la zone de haute altitude du Parc National de Kahuzi-Biega The Kahuzi-Biega National Park is one of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s five world heritage sites and harbors the Eastern Lowland Gorilla. One of the most crucial problems of the park is the management of a buffer zone where communities in the vicinities can access natural resources in a controlled manner, to guarantee their participation in the effort of conservation. The high altitude zone of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park is surrounded by a high population density, and all forests surrounding this part of the park have been converted to agriculture and ranching. A strong pressure is now exerted on the park’s forests. In order to target a high erosion rate and avoid the deforestation of the park’s forests, this expression of interest proposes to reforest areas surrounding the park.

Congo Conservation, Natural Resources Management, and Social Ecology Development of the Odzala/Lossi Interzone, in Republic of Congo The Lossi Fauna Reserve is a community-based conservation satellite of the Odzala-Kokoua National Park. The main goal of the project is to strengthen the participation of local communities in the management of the protected area, thus ensuring more effective conservation of the natural resources and ecosystems in the area. Additionally, the project seeks to contribute to the preservation of highly endangered gorilla species in support of the ECOFAC conservation program in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park.

Congo Protecting Wildlife and support of Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park The Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park (NNNP) harbours the world’s most important populations of forest elephants, red river hogs, bongo antelope, and is one of the last remaining strongholds for western lowland gorillas and chimpanzees in Africa. The main goal of the Nouabalé-Ndoki Project is to effectively protect the biodiversity of the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park and strengthen its management through a site-based, landscape management approach.

Mauritania Renforcement des aires protégées clées pour la conservation du phoque moine et d’autres espèces menacées emblématiques en Mauritanie, à travers l’éducation à l’environnement et l’appui à la gestion et à la surveillance The Cap Blanc peninsula harbors the world’s last Mediterranean monk seal colony and constitutes an important bird migration passage. The project aims to strengthen protected areas that are key for conservation of the Mediterranean Monk Seal and other emblematic species of Mauritania, through environmental education and increased support for management and monitoring.