Latest news with #GlobalEnvironmentFacility
Deccan Herald
20-07-2025
- Business
- Deccan Herald
Oldest climate fund plans wildlife bonds across Africa
The world's oldest multilateral climate fund, the Global Environment Facility, is planning a new wave of wildlife conservation bonds in a bid to help African countries save endangered species and ecosystems. Wildlife bonds, which provide low-cost funding in return for cutting poaching or other measures, were pioneered in 2022 with a World Bank-backed rhino bond and have seen a number of other examples since. There was an issue targeting chimpanzee protection in Rwanda last year, and last month the GEF approved one for lemur conservation in Madagascar. Fred Boltz, head of programming at GEF, which is linked to the World Bank, told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of African environment ministers that it aims to do one for every one of the 54 countries in Africa. He said such a move would require an investment of $150 million from GEF, which would then be leveraged 10 times to provide a total of $1.5 billion for conservation efforts through other borrowing. Money borrowed using wildlife bonds does not typically go onto the books of beneficiary governments, meaning they can offer much-needed financing to poorer countries, climate finance experts say. They usually target emblematic species in order to appeal to specialist investors and wealthy philanthropists and their payouts are directly linked to conservation - the better the result the less the governments are usually required to pay out. But GEF now hopes they can be expanded to include entire ecosystems such as wetlands, Boltz said. The push by the fund, which was formed after the landmark Rio Earth Summit of 1992, comes as aid and development funding cuts by the United States and other major economies threatens some conservation projects. "Many countries are asking, are suggesting, that in this tough official development assistance environment, that maintaining the last level of (species) replenishment may be difficult," Boltz said, "and that we might need to try to do more with less". $7.7 billion investment The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has in total invested $7.7 billion in Africa in various projects, such as an $85 million effort to fight desertification in the Sahel region. It is currently urging donors to replenish its cash for its next four-year cycle of programmes, starting next year. Its last fundraising for its current cycle raised $5.3 billion - an increase of more than 30% from its last operating period amid a surge of support for international efforts to meet nature and climate targets. That funding round got money from 29 countries, with the U.S. among the biggest donors, contributing $700 million.
Reuters
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
World's oldest climate fund targets wildlife bonds for every country in Africa
NAIROBI, July 17 (Reuters) - The world's oldest multilateral climate fund, the Global Environment Facility, is planning a new wave of wildlife conservation bonds in a bid to help African countries save endangered species and ecosystems. Wildlife bonds, which provide low cost funding in return for cutting poaching or other measures, were pioneered in 2022 with a World Bank-backed rhino bond and have seen a number of other examples since. There was an issue targeting chimpanzee protection in Rwanda last year, and last month the GEF approved one for lemur conservation in Madagascar. Fred Boltz, head of programming at GEF, which is linked to the World Bank, told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of African environment ministers that it aims to do one for every one of the 54 countries in Africa. He said such a move would require an investment of $150 million from GEF, which would then be leveraged 10 times to provide a total of $1.5 billion for conservation efforts through other borrowing. Money borrowed using wildlife bonds does not typically go onto the books of beneficiary governments, meaning they can offer much-needed financing to poorer countries, climate finance experts say. They usually target emblematic species in order to appeal to specialist investors and wealthy philanthropists and their payouts are directly linked to conservation - the better the result the less the governments are usually required to pay out. But GEF now hopes they can be expanded to include entire ecosystems such as wetlands, Boltz said. The push by the fund, which was formed after the landmark Rio Earth Summit of 1992, comes as aid and development funding cuts by the United States and other major economies threatens some conservation projects. "Many countries are asking, are suggesting, that in this tough official development assistance environment, that maintaining the last level of (species) replenishment may be difficult," Boltz said, "and that we might need to try to do more with less". The GEF has in total invested $7.7 billion in Africa in various projects, such as an $85 million effort to fight desertification in the Sahel region. It is currently urging donors to replenish its cash for its next four-year cycle of programmes, starting next year. Its last fundraising for its current cycle raised $5.3 billion - an increase of more than 30% from its last operating period amid a surge of support for international efforts to meet nature and climate targets. That funding round got money from 29 countries, with the U.S. among the biggest donors, contributing $700 million.
Scoop
30-06-2025
- General
- Scoop
Tide Of Change In Philippines As Women Revive Watersheds And Livelihoods
Onshore, women in this tropical zone gather to mend torn nets, sort the day's catch, and prepare their harvests for the market. Among them is Christina Guevarra, who gently frees a blue swimming crab from her net. 'From February to May, we are grateful,' she told the UN ahead of the International Day of the Tropics marked annually on 29 June. 'But after these months, especially when the rainy season begins, we have to find other ways to earn.' Simple but hard life Christina's family, like many others in Sasmuan, relies on the river's bounty, a livelihood increasingly threatened by dwindling fish populations and environmental degradation. 'It's difficult in coastal communities like ours because we are so dependent on the river's harvests,' she explained. 'Life for us fishers is simple, but it's also hard.' For generations, the local people have depended on the Sasmuan Pampanga coastal wetlands, part of a watershed that drains into Manila Bay. But pollution, poor waste management, and unsustainable practices now imperil its biodiversity and the local economy. 'The wastes we see in the river also come from upstream communities,' said Irene Villar, Assistant Head of Pampanga's Environment and Natural Resources Office. 'Even with proper waste disposal and policies in place, enforcement remains a challenge.' To address these issues, the Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) Project which is financed by the Global Environment Facility, implemented by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has partnered with the Provincial Government of Pampanga and local groups to promote sustainable practices including not only on conserving waterways but also on uplifting vulnerable communities—especially women. In Sasmuan, women like Edna Bilacog and Rose Ann Tungol find work at a Materials Recovery Facility, sorting household waste. Their pay, about 175 pesos a day (US$4), is well below the local minimum wage. 'What we earn barely meets our needs,' they admit, but their work helps sustain their families. Net gain Others, like Maricar Guevarra, have relied on traditional crafts. A skilled weaver for over 20 years, she earns about $4 per repaired net and $13 for a large one known as a panti, which takes four days to complete. 'This has been my main source of income, especially when my husband fell ill,' she said. To make ends meet, she also does laundry and sells home-cooked meals. Women also lead the crab trade, detangling crustaceans from nets and preparing them for market, though unsustainable aquaculture from nearby fishponds threatens their livelihood. In response, many have diversified. During the off-season, they work as helpers, labourers, or store employees in nearby towns. In the village of Batang 2nd, a women's group turns sea purslane, a wild riverbank weed, into atchara (pickled salad), while on the mainland, Patricia Culala has built a business around crab paste. 'The fat from the crab is the tastiest part—that's what I preserve and sell in bottles,' she explained. 'Through this business, I was able to send my children to school.' The women of Sasmuan are both resilient and innovative. But without sustainable solutions, their future remains uncertain. Fair wages, community-led conservation, and responsible river management are essential to preserving the wetlands, and the lives they nourish.
Hindustan Times
05-06-2025
- Hindustan Times
Villagers step up to halt Sierra Leone deforestation
Deep inside a Sierra Leone national park, a mother of seven was about to set dozens of tree trunks ablaze to make charcoal. Producing the cheap fuel in this way is illegal in the protected rainforest near the capital of a country highly vulnerable to the ravages of climate change. But Aminata Sankoh, a widow who said she had no other choice for making a living, defiantly shrugged off a stern warning from a group of villagers who monitor the forests as part of a groundbreaking grassroots initiative. "You are saying you are not affected by this deforestation, that there will be tree planting but it will affect your own great grandchildren!" chided group leader Caesar Senesie. The extent of the deforestation in the humid tropical forest and what remains of the primary forest is clear as far as the eye can see. Some has been taken over for marijuana plantations Sierra Leone is battling drug problems and land grabbing is also rife to satisfy demographic pressures. Nearly a third, or 5,600 hectares of the forest within the Western Area Peninsula National Park has been lost or severely degraded since 2012. Last year alone "intensive deforestation" led to the loss of 715 hectares, or the equivalent of 1,330 football pitches, according to the World Food Programme. UNESCO says the area is home to between 80 and 90 percent of Sierra Leone's biodiversity. But charcoal is the only way for many Sierra Leoneans to cook in the face of power cuts and soaring energy prices. Finding the illicit charcoal producing sites requires venturing deep into the forest by road and on foot, but an AFP team managed to visit the area. Groups of men fended off exhaustion as they carried out backbreaking work in stifling 35-degree Celsius heat, stacking up tree trunks covered with stones. Near Sankoh, the widowed mother, a mound several metres wide began to smoke. The worn-out 45-year-old said her husband died four years ago and to feed her children and pay for their schooling, she took a job breaking stones on construction sites. But two years ago, she made a decision. "I used to break stone... but I am not doing it any longer because I was struggling a lot. So I decided to come to the forest and do charcoal burning," she told AFP. Faced with the failures in protecting the forest as well as land seizures, units comprising 40 villagers have been set up. "Even at night, when we have a fire break out, I call my guys, we move straight away," Senesie, the group leader, said. "We, the community, are the solution to protect the forest," he added. Funded by the Global Environment Facility, the initiative was launched by the Environmental Foundation for Africa NGO, with support from the government and the United Nations Development Programme. People carry out illegal activities in the national park "because they can and believe that they will get away with it every time", Tommy Garnett, EFA founder and executive director, said. He blamed poverty, ignorance and greed for driving the deforestation. "This situation is destroying our natural heritage at an alarming rate," warned Garnett, who for 30 years has been involved in conservation projects in Sierra Leone and other west African countries. Sierra Leone is the 11th most vulnerable nation to the impact of climate change out of 191 countries ranked by the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative. Faced with the inefficiency and the alleged corruption of some forest rangers who, under-equipped and underpaid, sometimes turn a blind eye campaigners are banking on involving the worst hit local communities. Garnett said that paying villagers an incentive of $60 a month to make daily patrols and collect evidence had shed more light on what was happening in the forest than a decade of official patrols. EFA has replanted 103,000 trees in the past year, with the goal of an additional 500,000 by 2028. A few kilometres away, another unit of villagers from the "Mile 13" settlement were doing their bit under Sulaiman Barrie, who angrily complained of recent forest fires in the vicinity. "This was never the Sierra Leone we knew... This was never the Mile 13 I knew when I was just a boy," an emotional and exhausted Barrie said, smoke from the fires still rising above the mountains behind him. "We are standing now in a protected area... where we have all sorts of animals," he said. The community must "step up and protect the forest", he insisted. The government has also taken steps, Tamba Dauda, director of surveys and land within the lands, housing and country planning ministry, said. "We are quite aware of the massive deforestation that is ongoing," he said, highlighting the establishment of a land and environmental crime unit within the police to pursue perpetrators. Despite such efforts, Joseph Rahall, founder of the NGO Green Scenery, warned that the forest's very survival was at stake. "We are beyond the emergency level," he said. "If we don't manage the Western Area Peninsula very well, in 10 to 15 years there will be no forest." lp/sjd/cw/kjm
Times of Oman
28-05-2025
- Health
- Times of Oman
Environment Authority organises international workshop on safe management of hazardous chemicals
Muscat: The Environment Authority is organising a two-day international workshop on safe management of hazardous chemicals. The workshop, which takes place in Muscat, seeks to achieve sound management of chemicals as a basic pillar of sustainable development, in line with the strategic approach and objectives of Oman Vision 2040. The opening of the workshop was held under the auspices of Sayyid Saud Hilal Al Busaidi, Governor of Muscat. Held in cooperation with the UN Environment Programme and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the workshop constitutes a step forward towards the implementation of the provisions of the Minamata Convention on Mercury. It offers a practical guide on how to find suitable alternatives for mercury and to cut down the risks associated with the use of this substance, which is classified as hazardous to health and the environment. The workshop included the launch of the "National Strategy for Integrated Management of Hazardous Chemicals in the Sultanate of Oman". It highlights global practices and the outcome of studies and research in the field. The "National Strategy for Integrated Management of Hazardous Chemicals' constitutes a fundamental pillar of sustainable development. It plays a significant role in achieving the desired balance between the three dimensions of sustainable development: The economic dimension, social dimension and environmental dimension. The Strategy emerges as a national roadmap on managing chemicals in a safe and orderly manner, including production, manufacturing, handling, transportation, storage, processing and disposal hazardous materials. The workshop reviews 18 working papers on Oman's experience in the sound management of chemicals and mercury, the challenges involved in the management mercury, the systems and technologies used in the process of treatments and the relationship between plastics and persistent organic pollutants. The working papers also define the role of the Directorate General of Customs (which monitors chemicals at border crossings), standard procedures for transporting and storing hazardous materials and mercury, as well as the risks of using mercury in the field of farming. The workshop looks into a report on preliminary assessment of the propagation of mercury and outlines the national strategy on the management chemicals in the Sultanate of Oman.
