Andrew Hume Junior Professional Associate, International Waters Natural Resources Team

1. GEF Natural Resources Andrew Hume Junior Professional Associate, International Waters Natural Resources Team

2. GEF and the Rio Conventions • Created 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) • in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June of 1992. • Outcomes included the establishment of GEF and three international conventions: • - United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) • (Rio de Janeiro, June 1992) • - Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) • (Rio de Janeiro, June 1992) • - United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) • (Paris, June 1994)

3. The Natural Resources Team: • The Natural Resources Team addresses two of the Rio Conventions through its Biodiversity and Land Degradation Focal Areas: • 1) Biodiversity (BD)  CBD as the financial mechanism • 2) Land Degradation (LD)  UNCCD as a financial mechanism (along with the Global Mechanism) • Financial Mechanism = providing funding to projects/countries based on priorities identified by conventions • The NR team also address other global environmental issues outside of international conventions through the IW focal area • 3) International Waters (IW) • Gets informal guidance from several international agreements

4. 1) The GEF Secretariat, getting guidance from Convention Conference of Parties (COPs), the GEF/UNEP Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP), and other sources, proposes GEF Focal Area Objectives to the GEF Council . • 2) Objectives are approved by the GEF Council concurrent with GEF Replenishment four year cycles. We are currently in the fifth GEF Replenishment (GEF-5) which runs from 2010 to 2014. • 3) Each Focal Area (CC, BD, IW, LD, etc) has its own Strategy • 4) GEF Projects are then funded based on guidance from the Focal Area Strategies

5. Most recent COPs for the Biodiversity and Land Degradation: • UNCCD COP10 • October 2011 • Changwon, Republic of Korea • - First COP that GEF participated as one of the financial mechanisms • (along with the UNCCD Global Mechanism that was est. 1997). • CBD COP • October 2010 • Nagoya, Japan, • Led to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing: an international agreement for the sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources in a fair and equitable way…and by appropriate funding, thereby contributing to the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components.

6. Biodiversity Focal Area Strategy: The goal of the biodiversity focal area is the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the maintenance of ecosystem goods and services. • Improve the sustainability of protected area systems; • 2) Mainstream biodiversity conservation and sustainable use into production landscapes/ • seascapes and sectors; • 3) Build capacity to implement the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety; • (protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology) • 4) Build capacity on access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing; and • 5) Integrate CBD obligations into national planning processes through enabling activities

7. GEF Achievements in Biodiversity • $ 3.1 billion invested, $8.3 billion in cofinancingto support more than 1,000 projects in 155 countries • $1.89 billion invested in the creation and management of protected areas • 2,302 protected areas spanning 634 million hectares, 700 globally threatened species, 30 billion tons of stored carbon • 40 conservation trust funds supported with $300 million • Over 265 million hectares of productive landscapes and seascapes became biodiversity-friendly • Largest financier of forests: $1.5 billion supplemented by more than $4.5 billion in cofinancing; more than 300 projects focusing on forest conservation and management • Pioneer investor in payments for ecosystem services schemes

8. Land Degradation Focal Area Strategy • 1) Maintain or improve flows of agro-ecosystem services to sustain the livelihoods of local communities; • 2) Generate sustainable flows of forest ecosystem services in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid zones, including sustaining livelihoods of forest-dependent people; • 3) Reduce pressures on natural resources from competing land uses in the wider landscape; and • 4) Increase capacity to apply adaptive management tools in SLM.

9. GEF Achievements in Land Degradation • $ 340 million invested, $2.4 billion in co-financing to support more than 88 projects • Invested in more than 40 countries to deliver sustainable land management innovations in over 100 million ha of production landscapes, mainly in drylands to support implementation of the UNCCD. • The portfolio includes more than $2 billion of regional development financing to benefit 28 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (agriculture and food security), 5 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (integrated land and water management), and 5 countries in Central Asia (dryland management).

10. International Waters • The IW Focal Area is not a financial mechanism to any international agreement. • Instead IW focuses much of its effort building regional capacity (legal agreements, committees, etc) in transboundary water resources (coastal/marine, lakes, rivers, and aquifers) to reverse fisheries depletion, reduce water pollution, and balance conflicting water uses, and protecting aquifers.

11. GEF International Waters Portfolio • Largest investor in multi-country collective water & coastal management: $1.2 billion GEF & $6.1 billion co-financing. • 149 GEF recipient States cooperating with 23 non-recipient States • GEF 5: Four strategic objectives approved for $US 440 million. • Projects across multiple country boundaries included 30 river and lake basins, 5 groundwater basins, and 19 of the planet’s 64 large marine ecosystems, including half of those shared by developing countries

12. GEF5 IW Objectives 1) Catalyze multi-state cooperation to balance conflicting water uses in transboundary surface and groundwater basins while considering climatic variability and change 2) Catalyze multi-state cooperation to rebuild marine fisheries and reduce pollution of coasts and Large Marine Ecosystems while considering climatic variability and change 3) Support foundational capacity building, portfolio learning, and targeted research needs for joint, ecosystem-based management of trans-boundary water systems 4) Promote effective management of Marine Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ)

13. Project Example: IW Objective 4) Promote effective management of Marine Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) • Multi-Focal Area Project (IW & BD): GEF/FAO Program on Global Sustainable Fisheries Management and Biodiversity Conservation in ABNJ • Areas beyond the 200 nm Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) • Approximately $50 Million with $300 Million in co-financing • Conservation of tuna through tuna fishing organizations • Conservation of deep-sea ecosystems and fish • Public global awareness • Close ties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and CBD

14. GEF relies on 10 Implementing Agencies to facilitate project implementation. They are: • UN Development Programme; • UN Environment Programme; • World Bank; • UN Food and Agriculture Organization; • UN Industrial Development Organization; • African Development Bank; • Asian Development Bank; • European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; • Inter-American Development Bank; • International Fund for Agricultural Development. As well as with many of large NGOs as executing agencies:

15. Thank You Andrew Hume ahume@thegef.org