US FY 1999 Congressional Presentation

Note: This document may not always reflect the actual appropriations determined by Congress. Final budget allocations for USAID's programs are not determined until after passage of an appropriations bill and preparation of the Operating Year Budget (OYB).
ACTIVITY DATA SHEET

PROGRAM: LAC Regional
TITLE AND NUMBER: Selected Latin America and the Caribbean Parks and Reserves Important to Conserve the Hemisphere's Biological Diversity, 598-S004
STATUS: Continuing
PROPOSED OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCES: FY 1999: $4,500,000 DA
INITIAL OBLIGATION: FY 1995 ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: FY 2001

Purpose: To ensure on-site protection of 32-35 critically-threatened LAC national parks and reserves of global, biological significance.

USAID Role: LAC contains nearly half of the world's biodiversity. However, such pressures as population growth and increased demands for agricultural and grazing land are rapidly degrading key ecosystems, especially tropical rain forests. A cost-effective means to protect some of the Hemisphere's biodiversity is to improve the management of key LAC parks and reserves.

Through the Parks in Peril (PiP) program--a partnership among USAID, The Nature Conservancy, local NGOs and local government agencies--"paper parks" (those legally recognized but lacking on-the-ground management) are transformed into functioning protected areas. Key interventions include: (a) improving on-site capacity to protect parks (e.g., building key infrastructure, training park guards, etc.); (b) strengthening local conservation NGOs; (c) incorporating local communities in park planning and compatible economic activities; (d) establishing sources of long-term financing for park management; and (e) utilizing PiP sites as demonstration and training areas to advance conservation in other endangered ecosystems. The PiP program directly supports the Summit of the Americas initiative to establish a "partnership for biodiversity" in key ecosystems in selected LAC countries.

Achievements:

(i) PiP has significantly improved protection of 29 parks covering over 22 million acres in 12 countries. Of these, 13 PiP sites covering nearly 10 million acres have graduated from the program and are now independent, functioning protected areas.

(ii) Over $40 million of non-USAID funds to date have been leveraged for park management. Key contributors include The Nature Conservancy, the Global Environment Facility, power companies supporting joint implementation projects, the Governments of the Netherlands and Japan, local LAC governments, local NGOs, the Caribbean Development Bank, and numerous philanthropic organizations (e.g., Packard Foundation).

(iii) 19 local conservation NGOs are now effective technical and administrative organizations. These NGOs have become Hemispheric leaders in promoting policy reforms in such areas as mining, land tenure and zoning, local community involvement, and local government support for biodiversity conservation.

Host Country and Other Donors: PiP has greatly increased the funding and diversity of funding sources for LAC biodiversity conservation. Many LAC Governments are now financially supporting PiP sites. A good example of this is in Mexico. In FY 1997, Mexican federal, state (Chiapas), and municipal governments provided around $720,000 for PiP sites. In addition, USAID resources have leveraged funds from the Global Environment Facility, the Dutch, the Japanese, the Swiss, and numerous U.S. philanthropic organizations (e.g., Packard, Ford, MacArthur).

Beneficiaries: Local rural people who depend on the sustainable use of natural resources in and around LAC protected areas benefit directly from PiP community development and ecotourism activities. Where parks serve as watersheds for major cities (e.g., Chingaza Park for Bogota, Colombia; Podocarpus Park for Loja, Ecuador; Tariquia Reserve for Tarija, Bolivia), the program benefits city dwellers. U.S. citizens also benefit by the protection of genetic sources for future medicines and crop varieties, and by the storing of carbon in tropical forests and mangroves.

Principal Contractors: The Nature Conservancy, local NGOs (e.g., The Friends of Nature Foundation, Bolivia; National Association for the Conservation of Nature, Panama; Defenders of Nature, Guatemala; ProNaturaleza, Peru; Pronatura, Mexico).
Major Results Indicators: 
							Baseline**		Target (2001)
Independently Functioning Parks and Reserves				32-35

Area (millions of acres):							at least 25 

Effective local NGOs:								24-27

Host country funds leveraged:						US$16 million
^**Baselines (1990/91): At the beginning of the Parks in Peril program, there were no (zero) independently functioning parks and reserves, and our partner local NGOs were not yet effective. In 1991, the program leveraged $179,000.

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