Hyderabad: New approaches like Public Private Partnerships (PPP) are needed to mobilise funding for biodiversity conservation in the present era of diminishing pubic expenditures, a senior World Bank official has said.
"In an era of diminishing public expenditures for biodiversity conservation, we need innovation, communication and effective partnerships," World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development Rachel Kyte said during the recent UN biodiversity convention here.
"We are seeing more and more good examples of partnership that cross the boundaries between the public, private and non-government spheres to bridge public financing gaps and to deliver effective conservation on the ground," the official said.
The new approaches like PPP were also discussed at a side event to the Convention on Biological Diversity, organised from October 1 to 19.
The World Bank has launched a report, `Expanding Financing for Biodiversity Conservation: Experiences from Latin America and the Caribbean`, which documents five examples from Latin America for raising funds for conservation.
The examples showcase diverse sources of funding such as public, private and non-government.
One of the success stories the report highlights is from the Brazilian state of Acre which decoupled its economic growth from deforestation.
The state has reduced deforestation rates by 70 per cent while growing its GDP by 44 per cent between 2003 and 2008.
It did so by reducing illegal deforestation through the monitoring of timber licenses, enforcing environmental regulations, regularising land tenure, creating development programs in intact forest areas, targeting social programmes at those most in need, and improving agricultural and forest production processes, a media release said.
Also in Brazil, the state of Rio de Janeiro filled 43 per cent of its conservation financing gap by setting up the Atlantic Forest Fund.
It is partially funded through legally enshrined compensation payments for the environmental impacts of industrial and infrastructure projects.
The funds are being used to finance projects in approximately 20 protected areas, it said.
In Peru, additional funds were attracted to its protected areas by signing management contracts with non-government organisations.
The contractors are responsible for spending at least as much as the government, but have raised up to four times more, outstripping the government`s annual contributions.
The release suggests that certain elements like variety in arrangements, building social capital, clarity about conservation objectives are needed to evolve ways to conserve biodiversity.