Workshop on Financing Protected Areas of Africa

In African countries there is a general lack of political support for protected areas which exhibited in several ways at the national level. The budgets for their operation are inadequate or even non-existent and staffing levels are far too low to permit effective protection and management of these areas. The principal result is an erosion of the integrity of the areas and loss of biodiversity. This widespread situation may to a significant extent be explained by the history of the protected areas and their current lack of relevance to national economic and developmental goals and by antagonism or hostility at the level of the protected area itself. To change this situation and generate significant political support for protected areas within African nations will require new concepts, revision or abandonment of outmoded or irrelevant institutions, correction of historical injustices and the adoption of biologically appropriate protected area networks adapted to national development needs and appropriate to the economic conditions of the countries in question. Recent raising of the profile of protected areas in the context of NEPAD may provide an opportunity to address some of these issues in a continent-wide context.

As a contribution to meeting the above challenges, a workshop on Financing Protected Areas of Africa was convened by the BirdLife International African Partnership and the African Protected Areas Initiative (APAI) from 1st to 2nd February in Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop was aimed at raising awareness, promoting dialogue and exploring ideas for possible mechanisms for sustainable financing of protected areas in Africa. The global gathering of 38 Protected Areas managers and experts concluded that approximately US$ 300 million per year is required to effectively manage and protect Africa's over 1200 existing Protected Areas. This gathering also concluded that there are significant gaps currently existing in the Africa's PA systems and substantially more funding - about USD 800 million would be required to develop a comprehensive Protected Area system in Africa. This figure does not include costs of land purchase or compensation costs. (BirdLife and APAI do not support or condone eviction practices, location and purchase of any new PAs will need to be done ethically).

The participants made a number of recommendations which include:

• The workshop identified the need for an ongoing system of tracking Protected Areas spending as there is currently no means of systematically gauging or monitoring spend.
• Detailed country level cost studies on the costs and benefits of PA systems in Africa are urgently required. The workshop noted the lack of work done to identify and capture the benefits of Protected Areas to help offset the costs.
• The Protected Area system in Africa should be reviewed and rationalized to improve coverage of threatened species and their habitats.
• Cost estimates should be developed for marine sector PAs.
• The workshop urged commitment from national governments, international and stakeholders' in addressing financial shortfalls within the PAs in Africa. It was noted that national commitments are often essential in catalyzing international support and noted that APAI could be a vehicle for channeling financial support to Africa's PAs.

The workshop report was subsequently presented to participants of the First Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group on Protected Areas of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Italy in June 2005 and has been distributed to stakeholders around the globe.