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Climate and Biodiversity (2015)

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Climate and Biodiversity (2015) Climate and Biodiversity Promoting Nature-Based Solutions 1 x Great Bird Island, Antigua. © Fauna & Flora International/photo by Jenny Daltry Cover photos clock: © Robin Moore/iLCP, © Benjamin Drummond, © Robin Moore/iLCP, © Robin Moore/iLCP, © Benjamin Drummond 2 About CEPF The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) provides grants to nongovernmental and private sector organizations so they can conserve some of the most biologically diverse yet threatened ecosystems—the world’s biodiversity hotspots. The investments are even more meaningful because these regions are home to millions of people who are impoverished and highly dependent on natural resources. The fund is a joint program of l’Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, the European Union, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank. Enabling civil society groups to have stronger voices and exert greater influence in the world around them is the hallmark of our approach. Our grantee partners range from small farming cooperatives and community associations to private sector partners and national and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Our grants: • Target biodiversity hotspots in developing and transitional countries. • Are guided by regional investment strategies—ecosystem profiles—developed with local stakeholders. • Go directly to civil society groups to build this vital constituency for conservation alongside governmental partners. Grants are awarded on a competitive basis to implement the conservation strategy developed in each ecosystem profile. • Help governments meet targets related to the U.N.’s Convention on Biological Diversity, Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Sustainable Development Goals. • Create working alliances among diverse groups, combining unique capacities and eliminating duplication of efforts. • Achieve results through an ever-expanding network of partners working together toward shared goals. For more information, please visit www.cepf.net. At A Glance Hotspot Grantees Committed Amount Protected strategies supported grants leveraged by areas created implemented those grants (hectares) 23 2,000 $192M $347M 13M 3 Where CEPF Works 4 1. ATLANTIC FOREST 9. GUINEAN FORESTS OF WEST AFRICA 17. PHILIPPINES 2. CAPE FLORISTIC REGION 10. HIMALAYA 18. POLYNESIA-MICRONESIA 3. CARIBBEAN ISLANDS 11. INDO-BURMA 19. SUCCULENT KAROO 4. CAUCASUS 12. MADAGASCAR AND INDIAN OCEAN 20. SUNDALAND ISLANDS 5. CERRADO 21. TROPICAL ANDES 13. MAPUTALAND-PONDOLAND-ALBANY 6. COASTAL FORESTS OF EASTERN AFRICA 22. TUMBES-CHOCÓ-MAGDALENA 14. MEDITERRANEAN BASIN 7. EAST MELANESIAN ISLANDS 23. WESTERN GHATS AND SRI LANKA 15. MESOAMERICA 8. EASTERN AFROMONTANE 24. WALLACEA 16. MOUNTAINS OF SOUTHWEST CHINA * Inception through fiscal year 2016 Note: The Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests of Tanzania and Kenya Hotspot was divided in 2005; a portion of it is now part of the Eastern Afromontane Hotspot, and the remainder is part of the Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa Hotspot. Before the separation, CEPF had initiated an investment in the original Eastern Arc Hotspot and through that investment awarded grants in portions of the hotspots that are now known as the Eastern Afromontane and the Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa. 5 “Reinforcing these storehouses of rich, diverse life and essential resources by working with local conservationists and empowering communities is precisely the sort of approach that, when scaled up, can make a critical difference in the effort to stave off climate-related disaster.” Thomas E. Lovejoy Young volunteers at mangrove nursery, Haiti. © Fondation pour la Protection de la Biodiversité Marine/photo by Jean Wiener 6 Biodiversity and Nature- Based Climate Solutions The intersection of climate change and biodiversity is a point of the utmost importance for the future of humanity. Biodiversity is especially sensitive to climate change after 10,000 years of adjusting to a stable climate. The fingerprints of climate change can be seen anywhere one looks in nature. Beyond the many things that the diversity of life does for us, nature offers remedies to the negative impacts of climate change: it can help living things adapt; prevent future emissions by storing carbon; and offset some of the CO2 concentrations that are already changing our world. Natural ecosystems can help people – particularly the poor in rural and urban areas – adapt to changes in our climate. Sustainably managed rivers, aquifers and floodplains can help ensure water supplies and regulate flooding. Healthy coastal ecosystems such as mangroves and wetlands temper the impact of storms. Thriving grasslands counter drought and flooding. Tropical forests provide wild reserves of food and income during failed harvests. The oceans absorb heat and CO2 from the atmosphere, helping to stabilize the climate. Reducing or eliminating deforestation keeps carbon in living forest systems instead of adding to atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. At the same time, because a significant portion of the atmospheric greenhouse gas burden comes from the destruction and degradation of modern ecosystems, restoration of ecosystems at a large scale could pull as much as 0.5 degree Celsius of temperature increase out of the climate change equation. That is an impressive amount compared to the 0.85 degree Celsius of climate temperature increase already experienced since the industrial revolution. It is also an important offset considering the December 2015 global agreement to keep the global average temperature change this century to “well under 2 degrees Celsius” above pre-industrial levels, and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The global community should aim to limit temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius to prevent destruction of reefs due to increased water temperature and acidification, and other mass extinctions and ecosystem collapse. That can only be achieved by protecting existing ecosystems and their diversity along with an ambitious restoration program. By funding conservation efforts implemented by civil society in the world’s biodiversity hotspots, the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is already making a major contribution to this goal. For example, CEPF supported 7 percent of the global expansion of terrestrial protected areas during the period 2001-2010. CEPF works with local and international experts, other funders, government officials and communities to develop and implement thoughtful, coordinated conservation strategies via the strengthening of civil society. This approach has proven highly effective. This promise is chronicled here in examples of CEPF-funded work executed by international, national and local civil society organizations in developing countries and territories located in 23 of the 35 biodiversity hotspots. They clearly demonstrate effective approaches that, when taken to scale, will help the global community address the climate challenge using nature-based solutions—solutions that also contribute to the achievement of the 2020 biodiversity targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity (also known as the Aichi Targets), and can help build necessary bridges between global climate and biodiversity initiatives. The time is right to engage the CEPF model to its full potential. Thomas E. Lovejoy, Ph.D. Senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation, George Mason University professor and co-editor of “Climate Change and Biodiversity” Photo © Dylan Coulter 7 Caribbean Islands Land Management Biodiversity Hotspot Jamaica’s Hellshire Hills and Portland Ridge key biodiversity to Prevent Carbon areas include an important watershed that provides Emissions and communities with fresh water, serves as habitat for many fish species and the last population of the Critically Increase Absorption Endangered Jamaican iguana (Cyclura collei), and supports mangrove wetlands. CEPF grantee Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation (C-CAM) Careful land management protects and facilitated a climate change risk assessment for Portland restores forests and grasslands, supports Ridge and Hellshire Hills as part of the preparation of sustainable agriculture and balanced use a management plan for the Portland Bight Protected of resources, allowing people to continue Area. This is the first such plan in Jamaica to factor in climate change. The assessment determined that two enjoying, and even expand, the carbon of the major expected climate risks are a decrease storage provided by ecosystems. Proper in freshwater and coastal sedimentation and saline management also promotes fertile soils and intrusion. prevents erosion, to the benefit of farmers. Results Keeping these areas intact prevents further • Completed Jamaica’s first land management plan to carbon emissions and additional warming. include a climate change risk assessment. Expanding them could absorb emissions • Developed an action plan that provides strategies already on their way to feeding further on climate change adaptation and mitigation, land temperature increases. use and development zoning, and afforestation and reforestation initiatives. Implementation is underway. 8 Hellshire Hills wetland, Jamaica. © Robin Moore Eastern Afromontane Mediterranean Basin Biodiversity Hotspot Biodiversity Hotspot In eastern Democratic Republic In the dry Anti-Lebanon Mountains of Congo, CEPF is supporting on the Lebanese-Syrian border, the Wildlife Conservation Society
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