Forest snails, Philippines. Credit: Jeremy Holden/FFI HALCYON LAND & SEA ANNUAL REPORT DECEMBER 2017 Executive Summary 3 New projects 2017 5 Scoping grant, Namibia 5 Punta Venecia, Nicaragua 6 Major Site Acquisition and Protection Updates 1998+ 8 Protecting key forest landscapes at Zarand, Romania 8 Târnava Mare grasslands, Romania 10 Pamir Mountains Initiative, Tajikistan 12 Iberian Lynx Programme, Southern Portugal 13 Montado do Areeiro, Madeira 14 Chuilexi Conservancy, Mozambique 15 Southern National Park and adjoining game reserves, South Sudan 18 CONTENTS Securing vital areas of renosterveld, South Africa 20 Greater Niassa Reserve, Mozambique 22 Expanding community conservancies, Kenya 23 Sera Wildlife Conservancy, Kenya 25 Lekurruki Wildlife Conservancy, Kenya 26 Kwakuchinja, Tanzania 27 Flower Valley, South Africa 28 Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya 29 Nkuringo, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda 31 Awacachi Ecological Corridor (including Endesa concession), Ecuador 32 Golden Stream Corridor Preserve, Southern Belize 33 Yasquel cloud forest, Ecuador 35 Chacocente Wildlife Refuge, Nicaragua 35 Cristalino State Park, Brazil 36 Estancia La Querencia, Patagonia 37 Strategic Initiatives 1998 - 2016 38 Implementing Carbon Finance for Aceh’s forests, Indonesia TO PROOF 38 Kachin Highlands, Myanmar 39 Rapid Response Facility 41 Halcyon Climate Change Programme 42 Support to the BLUE Marine Foundation and Fish2Fork, UK 44 Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia 45 Sankuru Reserve, Democratic Republic of Congo 46 Strategic Small Grants 2008 – 2016 47 Belize legislation 47 Strengthening forest management in Saint Lucia 48 Protecting the ‘Google Forest’ of Mount Mabu, Mozambique 50 Shark aggregation sites, Australia 51 Soils for the Future, Tanzania 52 Halcyon Land & Sea Learning Grant 52 Increasing security for Borana Conservancy, Kenya 53 Developing a new approach to conserving rangelands, Australia 54 Emergency response for saiga antelopes, Uzbekistan 55 Valuing the Ustyurt steppe, Uzbekistan 56 Using REDD to protect forests, Vietnam 57 Tongwe forest protection, Tanzania 58 Ishaqbini Community Conservancy, Kenya 59 Burnett Mary Region, Australia 60 Cape Private Nature Reserves, South Africa 61 Conservation Incentives in South Africa 61 Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Programme 61 Conclusion 66 FAUNA & FLORA INTERNATIONAL 2 Cactus on Bird Island, Antigua. Credit: Jeremy Holden/FFI EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Halcyon Land & Sea is a fund established in 1998 by Fauna & Flora International (FFI) is extremely grateful to Dr Lisbet Rausing to find innovative and entrepreneurial Arcadia for the opportunity to undertake such strategic and ways to secure threatened habitats. long-term conservation. We are delighted that Arcadia has decided to renew and extend its support to Halcyon Land The aims of Halcyon Land & Sea are to: & Sea, and are very grateful for the opportunity this I. Secure areas of exceptional biodiversity that are presents to increase our conservation impact. unprotected or under-protected and are at risk of destruction or degradation using the most locally The review commissioned by Arcadia, which took place appropriate approaches; during 2016, provided us with an extremely valuable II. Build the local and national capacity to manage these opportunity to reflect on the progress, achievements, and sites into the long term, engaging the local approaches used in Halcyon Land & Sea and across FFI community in this process wherever possible; more widely. We are extremely grateful to Arcadia for providing us with this opportunity for self-examination and III. Develop mechanisms to underpin the long-term reflection and continue to apply the learning from this financial sustainability of these sites; and process. IV. Develop an improved enabling environment for site conservation, through strategic interventions at both The Halcyon Land & Sea portfolio now includes some 48 policy and practice levels. projects1, as well as an additional 36 sites that have been supported through the Rapid Response Facility. This report provides an update on all Halcyon Land & Sea projects supported since 1998, with a focus on activity in 2017, relating to grant AE 3290. 1 Another donor to Halcyon Land & Sea chose to support four additional marine projects, but these are also listed as part of the Arcadia Marine Programme. They are not reported here, but are instead reported as part of the separate Marine report. FAUNA & FLORA INTERNATIONAL 3 Mountain range in Kyrgyzstan. Credit: Juan Pablo Moreiras/FFI PROTECTING LAND Through Halcyon Land & Sea, FFI secures areas of critical warming. Initial calculations made in 2007 indicated that biodiversity through a number of diverse approaches, the habitats and soils within the sites at that time had developed to fit the needs of individual sites and projects. secured around 260 million tonnes of carbon. If key sites These include site purchase or lease, developing local land had been destroyed or degraded, up to 204 million stewardship or site management agreements, and putting tonnes of carbon dioxide could have been released – in place conservation management where this has been equivalent to 37% of the UK’s annual CO2 emissions. absent or weak. We always work in partnership with local conservation agencies and local communities. We also award strategic small grants in areas where traditional funding is unavailable, but the threat to priority Halcyon Land & Sea is extremely selective in its acquisition conservation lands is immediate. of sites; it acts strategically by securing key habitats, creating wildlife corridors, and bridging essential gaps in Halcyon Land & Sea supported two new initiatives in 2017, site ownership. To date, Halcyon Land & Sea has actively and we are very grateful for the agreement that remaining secured over 9.6 million hectares of critical habitat, and funds can be carried forward for 2018, which will enable us has directly contributed to the conservation of over 56.9 to take forward some of the new areas of work we have million hectares2, an area almost as large as Kenya. been exploring this year – including new sites in Namibia and a further concession holding in Niassa Reserve. We are Halcyon Land & Sea sites are not only important in terms of also extremely grateful for the new tranche of funding the wildlife they protect – they also protect important agreed this year by Arcadia, with which we aim to further stores of carbon that, if released, could contribute to global increase the impact of Halcyon Land & Sea. EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES These projects ensure local, sustainable management by of biodiversity and the development of innovative empowering local groups to address conservation needs community-based enterprise schemes are encouraged. themselves. Halcyon Land & Sea projects always work This is an important component of project sustainability, as towards handing over site management or ownership to is the promotion of conservation finance. To this end an appropriate in-country group, with a commitment to projects develop innovative approaches to ensure the providing support until the project is sustainable. running costs of Halcyon Land & Sea sites can be underpinned in the long-term, realising the inherent Halcyon Land & Sea projects also work to ensure equitable values of natural resources where possible, with the aim benefits to local communities through an improvement in that biodiversity can in effect fund its own conservation. the standard of living and through their inclusion in land planning decisions. Where appropriate, the sustainable use 2 This does not include the Chagos marine reserve; Halcyon Land & Sea funding provided to BLUE Foundation helped to secure this area, covering some 54.5million hectares. FAUNA & FLORA INTERNATIONAL 4 Namibian landscape. Credit: David Wright NEW PROJECTS 2017 SCOPING GRANT, NAMIBIA Namibia’s biodiversity is unique and diverse; it supports the In 2017 Halcyon Land & Sea supported a scoping project to world’s largest populations of cheetah and free-roaming identify potential new interventions in priority Namibian black rhino, and contains important biodiversity hotspots landscapes to prevent potential erosion of the community within unique biomes such as the Succulent Karoo Biome conservancies and associated wildlife, and to find new ways and the Namib escarpment. to extend and strengthen the existing protected areas. Specifically, we were invited by potential partners to assess Its national parks cover 17% of the country and another 19% the potential of three landscape areas, and defined project of the country is protected under community-based resource sites within them, with a view to enhancing or extending the management including 76 communal conservancies and 13 protection of these areas. community forests. In particular, its community conservancy system is globally renowned for balancing biodiversity Etosha South. There is a vision to establish a functional protection with sustainable use, and these areas generate buffer zone for the southern boundary of Etosha National important tourism income. However, after decades of large Park through development of a connected “belt” of private scale support, notably from USAID and DFID, its designation and community reserves. This would act to reduce external as an upper income country means it no longer receives threats from land conversion and poaching, and would significant official aid, putting these existing conservation increase the secure range of Etosha National Park’s black systems