PROJECT DESCRIPTION Country Context Angola Has a Diversity Of

Child Project Title: Strengthening Climate Resilience and Biodiversity Management in Angola’s Conservation Areas Country: Angola GEF Agency(ies): WB Total Project Cost (GEF $ 14,834,862 Grant) Estimated Co-financing $25,800,000 PROJECT DESCRIPTION Country Context Angola has a diversity of ecosystems and hosts some of the richest biodiversity in the continent, including several endangered species. The extent of protected areas has been increasing and now covers 13 percent of the country (equivalent to 156,909 km2). Wildlife and protected areas play an important role in Angola, although their contribution to the economy is not well documented. However, climate change poses a serious threat to Angola’s economy, its population and its ecosystems. Angola has warmed significantly in recent decades, mean annual rainfall has decreased, and long-term projections over the 21st century reveal these trends will continue, with a stronger impact in the southern part of the country. Climatic shocks such as droughts and floods have also become more frequent and are projected to intensify. Desertification is advancing, particularly in the Namib and Kalahari deserts in southern Angola. These effects pose serious threats to ecosystems and biodiversity – which are impacted by shifts in the habitat ranges of plants and animals, leading to species displacement and loss – as well as vulnerable communities and indigenous people, who depend on natural resources and agriculture for their livelihoods and food security. Poverty and a rapid growing population exacerbate the threats of climate change to the protection of wildlife and biodiversity in Angola. The country has one of the highest deforestation rates in the country. Further, the levels of poaching are high in comparison to other countries in southern Africa and illegal hunting occurs in most or all the protected areas. There is significant commercial poaching of elephants, which has led to a steady decrease of their population. Other endangered animal species include the cheetah, brown hyenas, African wild dog, mountain and plain zebras, giraffe and oryx, while Black rhinoceros may be already extinct. With the increased expansion of communities in protected areas, human-wildlife conflicts are common, mainly in areas where there is agriculture development and near water catchments. Climate change is also posing alterations to the geographical environment with species displacement and loss, also resulting in an increase in human-wildlife conflict where wildlife tends to move closer to human settlements due to the absence of food and water. Angola’s intended National Determined Contribution (iNDC) prioritizes ecosystems and biodiversity, and agriculture, among other sectors, as important for building resilience to climate change and improving livelihoods. Angola’s National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) highlights the vulnerability and impacts of climate change on biodiversity, forests, ecosystems and agriculture and foresees the inclusion 2 of 10 to 15% of species in the IUCN categories of species threatened with extinction by 2050, with an increase to 25 to 40% of species by 2080 (assuming there is no species migration). The National Strategy for Climate Change, on the other hand, highlights the risks to species displacement and loss and defines priority actions to address these, including improving and strengthening the capacity of forest and biodiversity monitoring at national and regional scale, and improving the management of protected areas. The institutions with a mandate over protected areas have limited capacity to address the degradation of the protected areas and wildlife loss. Law enforcement is weak as is the implementation of national conservation policies and priorities. Funding for protected area management and local development in surrounding areas is also limited. As multiple resource use areas, Angola’s Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) are inhabited by local communities and indigenous people who are among the poorest and most vulnerable in Angola and are highly exposed to climate change impacts, mostly to agriculture. Locally, there is little coordination between park management authorities and municipalities on local development and land use issues, often resulting in land use conflicts and further degradation of the environment and wildlife. The project is expected to generate global environmental benefits such as strengthened climate resilience of globally-significant important ecosystems, improved biodiversity conservation and strengthened resilience of local communities to climate change. Project Overview and Approach Provide a brief description of the geographical target(s), including details of systemic challenges, and the specific environmental threats and associated drivers that must be addressed The proposed project is expected to support the Angolan component of two TFCAs, namely: the Luengue- Luiana National Park (part of the Kavango-Zambezi TFCA (KAZA), in the south-east) and Iona National Park (part of the Iona-Skeleton Coast TFCA, in the south-west). Luengue-Luiana covers an area of 4,581,800 ha while Iona covers 1,515,000 ha. The targeted TFCAs have exceptional biodiversity, but face significant threats, including from climate change vulnerability and exposure, environmental degradation, land encroachment, and poaching. Moreover, local communities and indigenous people living in the TFCAs are poor and highly vulnerable to climate change impacts and have few opportunities to derive significant benefits from wildlife yet can suffer from human-wildlife conflict and other direct costs. The Iona-Skeleton Coast TFCA hosts the most ancient and biodiverse desert in the world and has a wide range of desert and semi-desert ecosystems, including mobile dunes along the coast, calcrete plains, desert grasslands, open woodland, arid shrub land and savannah. It also hosts a rich endemic flora and fauna. The TFCA is also home to indigenous peoples, such as the Mucubal and Himba, as well as many Kimbundu groups. Most practice subsistence farming or are herders. About 3,300 people live inside the Iona National Park, who own 70,000 cattle. In Iona National Park, drought and irregular rainfall are affecting the agricultural productivity in the area, threatening food security. Calamities are frequent due to the desert, and often, the government supports the population by providing food. Due to an increase in the population living in the national, expansion of settlements and illegal camping there has been an increase in deforestation and overgrazing which is causing loss of wildlife and exacerbating land degradation and human-wildlife conflicts. 3 KAZA is estimated to be the ecosystem that sustains the world’s largest elephant population (of around 250,000). Angola occupies the largest portion of the park (approximately 17% of the total area). The Cuando Cubango province has the largest block of protected area and includes the Luengue-Luiana National Park and the Mavinga National Park. In Luengue-Luiana National Park, irregular rainfall and deforestation are threatening the ‘Water Towers’ of the Kavango watershed. Human wildlife conflicts and wildlife poaching is prevalent in both targeted TFCAs, where wildlife tends to move closer to human settlements due to absence of food and water. There is also inadequate law enforcement in the protected areas. In the KAZA TFCA particularly, there is persistent bushmeat hunting by local communities and intense elephant poaching, which has led to a steady decrease of their population. Government institutions responsible for conservation and climate change lack capacity and financing to address these issues, leading to a weak management of protected areas and lack of response to climate risks. These TFCAs are challenged by degraded infrastructure and weak management, which leads to an expansion of human settlements, and further environmental degradation and wildlife poaching. This is compounded by the fact these areas are significantly large, remote, and under significant threats in addition to being surrounded by significant poverty. Locally, lack of integration of climate-resilience, biodiversity conservation and local development considerations into planning and management leads to further degradation and conflicts in land use. Even though there is potential to develop nature-based tourism to generate revenues for the government and diversify the livelihoods of vulnerable communities, the target TFCAs lack basic infrastructure and services to develop an attractive offer. Describe the existing or planned baseline investments, including current institutional framework and processes for stakeholder engagement and gender integration; Angolan wildlife and protected areas are receiving increasing attention by the government of Angola to support people’s livelihoods and the diversification of economy through nature-based tourism. In recent years, the GoA has developed the policy and legal framework to rehabilitate the national system of protected areas and engaged in international agreements to foster regional collaboration on these issues. The Strategic Plan for the Protected Areas System (Plano Estratégico para o Sistema de Áreas Protegidas, PESAP, 2018) is the most recent policy document for protected areas. It strives to ensure their socioeconomic and financial sustainability and to mobilize investments to stimulate the local economy through activities that are compatible with the protection of natural resources, while improving

Load more