BIOPAMA is pleased to announce the launch of the Call for Proposals for Rapid Response Grants of the BIOPAMA Action Component. These grants aim at increasing the resilience of protected areas and local communities’ livelihoods facing the risks and difficulties of the global COVID-19 pandemic in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. Applications are open to eligible organisations on a rolling basis until 31 December 2020 but will be processed in the order they are received.
Upcoming Partner webinar: The Rising Blue Dollar, Sustainable Ocean Financing for Marine Conservation
Upcoming webinar presented by Blue Finance and The Commonwealth Blue Charter
The Rising Blue Dollar: Sustainable Ocean Financing for Marine Conservation
When : July 22nd
14:00 - 15:00 BST (GMT + 1)
Marine Protected Areas often suffer from inadequate and unsustainable funding sources, with over 60% globally of existing MPAs having reported inadequate budgets for basic management and compliance. The Commonwealth has a huge stake in the future of our ocean, together covering more than one-third (35%) of national marine waters globally.
This webinar will –
• Provide an overview of the sustainable financing concept for the effective management of MPAs
• Showcase good and best practice case studies from two project sites
• Elaborate how financial resilience needs to be built in, to move forward in a post COVID-19 world
COVID19 and the Conservation Finance Community : Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Development
The next Coronavirus and the Conservation Finance Community online discussion will dive into the benefits of Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Development as a robust conservation finance mechanism in the time of Coronavirus.
When: July 10th, 11am EST
Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Development is a broad category of strategies that supports the alignment of diverse interests towards multiple sustainable development objectives. Some examples for conservation include prioritizing nature based solutions to climate change, integrating watershed management with urban development, integrated planning for SDG targets at the national level, etc. This was one of the conservation finance mechanisms that remains potentially robust despite the current Covid pandemic (see CFA Covid discussion). Three knowledgeable panelists will discuss the benefits and challenges of Mainstreaming Biodiversity in a time of COVID19. They will discuss how mainstreaming assures that investments in nature (including recovery efforts) provide essential co-benefits for other sustainable development objectives.
Meet our panelists:
Onno van den Heuvel, Manager, the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), UNDP
Onno is the Global Manager for BIOFIN – based at UNDP’s Istanbul Regional Hub. He leads the BIOFIN team, responsible for all global and national activities, programme development, resource mobilisation and partnerships. Onno holds a Masters Degree in Economic Geography from the University of Utrecht
Katia Karousakis, Biodiversity Team Leader, OECD Environment Directorate, OECD
Katia is the Programme Lead of the Biodiversity, Land Use and Ecosystems (BLUE) programme at the OECD. She works within the Climate, Biodiversity and Water Division of the OECD Environment Directorate, which she joined in 2006. Prior this, she worked on climate change at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. An environmental economist by training, Katia has a PhD from University College London, U.K., and a Masters from Duke University, USA.
Tracey Cumming, Expert on Biodiversity Finance CBD, and Technical Advisor BIOFIN.
Tracey Cumming has extensive experience in biodiversity finance and policy at a national and international level. Tracey is a Technical Advisor for the UNDP Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), and a member of the Convention on Biological Diversity Panel of Experts on Resource Mobilisation, where she is leading the work on recommendations for resource mobilisation in support of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework for the next 10 years.
Moderator:
Sean Nazerali, Director for Innovative Financing, BIOFUND
Sean Nazerali is the Director for Innovative Financing at BIOFUND Mozambique, the national CTF. He has focused on a variety of mechanisms to increase financing for conservation, and is currently working on promoting initiatives on Biodiversity Offsets, Payments for Ecosystem Services, and mobilizing Private Sector Finance.
Background on the Conservation Finance Alliance and the Coronavirus and Conservation Finance Community Series
The Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) is the leading global professional alliance of conservation finance experts, practitioners, and organizations. The CFA’s mission is to promote awareness, expertise, and innovation in conservation finance globally.
The CFA has recently introduced a new series of online discussions regarding the impact of COVID-19 on conservation finance, titled “Coronavirus and the Conservation Finance Community”.
To date, three online discussions have been held. The first discussion focused generally on CTF’s, with representatives from CAFÉ and RedLAC discussing how the pandemic was impacting operations, finance flows, and what the future could look like. The second discussion identified specific conservation finance tools that are viewed as most robust in the face of the crisis. Following the taxonomy of conservation finance mechanisms outlined in the CFA white paper “Conservation Finance: A Framework”, three tools were identified: Public-Private Partnerships, Blended Finance, and Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Development.
The CFA is continuing the discussion by holding three additional online calls, focusing on each of these priority finance mechanisms. The first of the three calls, which focused on Public-Private Partnerships with an emphasis on Marine Protected Areas, was recently completed on June 18th (recording available here).
The remaining calls are Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Development planned for July 10th and Blended Finance planned for late July (date will be announced shortly).
COVID19 and the Conservation Finance Community : Public-Private Partnerships
Missed the Webinar? View the recording below:
The next Coronavirus and the Conservation Finance Community online discussion will dive into the benefits of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as a robust conservation finance mechanism in the time of Coronavirus. Join us as our panelists discuss the resiliency of Public-Private Partnerships in times of economic and social unrest. The call will involve presentations from the panelists (~30 mins) and then a Q&A session for the remainder of the hour.
The panelists for the discussion are as follows:
ERIC CAREY
Executive Director of the Bahamas National Trust (BNT)
ELEANOR CARTER
Deputy Director of the Chumbe Island Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Zanzibar, Tanzania; and Founder and Director of Sustainable Solutions International Consulting.
NICOLAS PASCAL
Director of Blue finance
Some of the themes and questions that our panelists discussed include:
The pros and cons of institutional arrangements for the management structure of PPP's
How COVID19 has impacted operations
What are plans to build resilience into PPP related financing mechanisms in the future.
ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS AND CONSERVATION FINANCE COMMUNITY
The CFA has recently introduced a new series of online discussions regarding the impact of COVID-19 on conservation finance, titled “Coronavirus and the Conservation Finance Community”.
To date, two online discussions have been held. The first discussion focused generally on CTF’s, with representatives from CAFÉ and RedLAC discussing how the pandemic was impacting operations, finance flows, and what the future could look like. The second discussion identified specific conservation finance tools that are viewed as most robust in the face of the crisis. A detailed recap of the two online discussions can be found here.
Following the taxonomy of conservation finance mechanisms outlined in the CFA white paper “Conservation Finance: A Framework”, three tools were identified: Public-Private Partnerships, Blended Finance, and Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Development.
The CFA would like to continue the discussion by holding three additional online calls, focusing on each of the finance mechanisms in turn.
CFA Webinar: Blue Natural Capital Financing Facility
Please join us for another very insightful CFA Webinar, hosted by our Marine and Coastal Finance Working Group. The webinar features the Blue Natural Capital Financing Facility, and will focus on recent report : Blue Infrastructure Finance: A new approach, integrating Nature-based Solutions for coastal resilience.
All coastal and marine ecosystems are critical to human well-being and global biodiversity. But urban and rural infrastructure developments are having a heavy negative impact on these systems, and it is increasing over time.
Habitats like tidal mangrove forests, seagrasses and coral reefs, can help to make infrastructure investments better, more resilient and financially more attractive. These are known as Nature-based Solutions (NbS). Financial mechanisms are needed to support a shift away from infrastructure investments with unclear or negative impacts on nature towards those providing clean water and energy, flood and erosion control, etc. The developments must also preserve and enhance their coastal and marine environments.
The Report and the Webinar present new finance solutions integrating Blue Natural Capital, a critical tool for this transition.
Speakers:
D. Herr (IUCN, Moderator)
S. Crooks (Silvestrum)
T. Thiele (Global Ocean Trust)
Missed the webinar? Please find a recording of it below.
Portfolio Management Consultant (SDG Finance)
The Fund supports countries as they accelerate their progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It operates through a series of Calls for the United Nations (UN) system that lead to the implementation of transformative Joint Programmes (JPs), under the leadership of Resident Coordinators (RCs). In doing so the Fund is committed to forge paths and partnerships that unlock public and private capital for the SDGs at scale
The Joint SDG Fund launched in December 2019 its first Call for Proposals [link to download] on SDG Financing. The Call has two components. Component 1 is about the development of SDG-aligned financing strategies and related capacities for implementation, while Component 2 is about catalyzing investment at scale for the SDGs.
This vacancy is about the provision of support to the UN Joint SDG Fund (the Fund) on grant and portfolio management.
Duties and Responsibilities
Support quality joint programme implementation and monitoring (60%)
Support innovation and learning, and communicating joint programme results (30%)
Support to stakeholder collaboration (10%)
Solicitation of Proposals for an Independent Financial Advisor for “La Fondation pour le Tri-National de la Sangha”
The La Fondation pour le Tri-National de la Sangha (“FTNS”) is a private foundation established as a Charity under English law with permission to operate in Cameroon, where its headquarters are located. The FTNS was established in 2007 with the purpose to provide sustainable financial support for the conservation of the Sangha Trinational (“TNS”) which is a transboundary forest complex including three contiguous protected areas: the Lobeke National park (Cameroon), Nouabalé Ndoki (Republic of Congo) and the Protected Areas of Dzanga Sangha (Central African Republic).
In accordance with its “Manuel de Procedures Administratives, Comptables, Financieres et Budgetaires Specifiques”, the FTNS intends to procure and contract an Independent Financial Advisor (the “Advisor”) by means of a competitive, fair and transparent Solicitation Procedure.
The FTNS now invites Proposals by interested and qualified firms and individuals. The Solicitation procedure is implemented by a Tender Agent on behalf of the FTNS. Interested firms and individuals may contact the Tender Agent Rene Meyer by email ftns@renemeyer.org to obtain the Terms of Reference and more details about the Solicitation Procedure.
Proposals may be submitted until June 15th, 2020, 6 pm (West Africa Standard Time). Please view the flyer here.
RedLAC Webinar: Sustainable Tourism in the Post COVID-19 Era
When: May 29th, 10 a.m (Mexico/Colombia/Peru)
RedLAC
Zoom:
ID: 864-5298-7217
Password: 455230
Registration required
This webinar aims to analyze the changes that the tourism sector is ecperiencing and the opportunities that are arising for the development of sustainable tourism. We will have the participation of three international experts in the subject: Paloma Zapata, Director of Sustainable Travel International; Hans Pfister, Director of Cayuga Collection; and Vicente Ferreyra, Director of SustenTur. The webinar will be in Spanish.
CFA Incubator Project Descriptions released
The long awaited descriptions of the 15 chosen projects as part of the 2020 CFA Incubator have been released.
Please make sure to check the CFA Incubator page to learn about the projects !
The Ocean Finance Handbook
New Release !
Today The Ocean Finance Handbook has been published by Friends of Ocean Action. The handbook is a guide to support an increase in finance flowing towards the sustainable blue economy, offering insights into the range of funding options for sustainable ocean-based industry and marine conservation. Check it out by following this link!