Contacts: In Washington: Gabriela Aguilar (202) 473 6768 gaguilar2@worldbank.org In Mexico City: Fernanda Zavaleta (52-55) 54804252 fzavaleta@worldbank.org Washington, DC, November 4, 2008—The World Bank’s Executive Board of Directors approved today an additional grant for US$5.44 million from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) in order to assist the Mexican government; Mexico’s Development Banking Institution, Nacional Financiera, and the Mexican Nature Conservation Fund, in its efforts to promote conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity through the consolidation of the Protected Areas System Project. “This grant is in response to the success we have observed in Mexico’s endowment fund with the participation of the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources and the Mexican Nature Conservation Fund. Our collaboration in the project began many years ago and we recognize the positive outcome for the country and, above all, for the social groups directly involved. The idea is to expand the initial coverage set forth in 1997 by the Global Environmental Facility to twelve new areas, reaching a total of twenty-two protected areas in the program,¨ said Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Director for Mexico and Colombia. These resources represent long term financing for three additional biosphere reserves: La Sepultura and El Ocote in Chiapas; and Mapimi in the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Durango. Each one encloses unique biodiversity that faces threat to its conservation and its sustainable use. The Consolidation of the Protected Areas System Project (SINAP II) began in 2002 and aims to achieve its goals through: (a) Conservation of biodiversity of global importance in selected areas of the SINAP II, through a trust fund; (b) Promoting economic, social and environmental sustainability in productive activities throughout selected protected natural areas; (c) Promoting co-responsibility in conservation; and (d) Promoting the inclusion of biodiversity conservation and sustainable criteria in development projects and other practices that affect the selected protected natural areas. “Even though it’s a local effort, the benefits generated through the protection of these areas include long term conservation of biodiversity of global importance,” said Adriana Moreira, World Bank Senior Specialist on Environment and team leader of the project. “This project would not be as successful if it wasn’t for the collaboration of the residents in the areas and the indigenous communities that inhabit them. They are our strategic partners,” she added. The GEF started to finance protected natural areas in Mexico in 1992. Subsequently, in 1997, the project was restructured as a trust fund for ten protected areas (SINAP I). In 2002 the Consolidation of SINAP II was approved. The protected areas which were included were selected on the basis of the global value of its biodiversity, as well as the threats they were facing. The SINAP II project was originally approved by the World Banks Executive Board of Directors in February 2002, when a commitment was made to finance an innovative multi-tranched structure with a total amount of US$31.1 million. The first tranche of US$16.1 million included US$7.5 million endowment fund to cover the basic conservation of four protected areas. The second tranche of US$2.21 million was endorsed on July 2004 to support basic conservation in the Sierra de Alamos in Sonora. The third tranche was endorsed on June 2007 and corresponded to a US$7.35 million grant which was used to add another four protected areas to the program. In this fourth tranche, the approval is for US$5.44 million to support the three selected protected areas mentioned above. The total cost of the project considering SINAP I and SINAP II is US$60.12 million.
| 
RSS