Page 1 of 1 Neira, Luisa Fernanda From: Stéphane Pauquet [spauquet@parkswatch.org] Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 12:16 PM To: Neira, Luisa Fernanda Cc: Huber, Richard; Daniela Lerda Subject: In relation to RfP Component 3 of IABIN Attachments: BCID Presentation (eng).pdf Dear Sir/ Madam, As indicated in the title, this email is in response to the "Second Request for Proposals (RFPs) for the Development of Value ‐ Added Tools for Decision ‐ Making". Before anything, let me indicate that we are aware that the deadline expired last week, and sincerely wish you that this second RfP will have attracted winning proposals. The group I represent (FUNBIO-RedLAC) was unfortunately informed too late to meet this deadline, so we assume that this call for proposals is closed. However, in the unlikely event that you might still be considering last minute applications, please allow me to send you a description of a project that was recently launched -- the Biodiversity Conservation Investments Database, or BCID -- and whose online tools, once completed, are likely to offer many of the functionalities that the IABIN may be looking for. In case you are still in search of the appropriate partner, I invite to give this document a quick read. Please take into account that this is not an actual proposal, but the description of activities that are already scheduled to take place. We'll be happy to follow suit with an actual proposal in case you invited us to submit one. FYI, funding for this project is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and there should be no problem in considering a 2: 1 matching scheme. Conversely, if the void is already filled (in which case, congratulations), consider this as a first step towards a formal rapprochement between the BCID and IABIN databases and executive committees in order to open a discussion on how best to collaborate on our respective projects. It seems that the potential synergies between these two portals are immense. For this reason, I'm also sending a copy of this email to Daniela Lerda, head of the Applied Knowledge department at FUNBIO (www.funbio.org.br) and manager of this project. Thank you for your attention and I look forward to hearing from you when you find the time, -- Stéphane Pauquet General Coordinator Biodiversity Conservation Investments Database (BCID) Latin American Network of Environmental Funds (RedLAC) spauquet@parkswatch.org | www.redlac.org – | www.greenvest.org – (PS: I'll be out of the office quite a lot during the next few weeks, so please excuse me if I take a few days in answering emails) 10/15/2008
BCID Biodiversity Conservation Investment Database for the Andes-Amazon Region RedLAC - FUNBIO October 2008 Project description I. Project Goal and Rationale Biodiversity conservation and sustainable development have become major priorities for international aid cooperation and different donor programs. Although funding for environmental protection has increased in overall terms over the years, so have the needs for greater protection of natural resources. Conservation finance is one of the most central elements in ensuring the long term success of environmental policies and programs. In the Andes Amazon region, where this Project is being developed, this situation is no different. The complex geologic and evolutionary history of the Andes, the world’s longest mountain range, has produced an exceptionally rich and diverse landscape of species and ecosystems which depend on long term financial strategies to ensure their protection. On the eastern slope of the Andes and the adjacent Amazonian forests, the situation is no different. Home to the world’s highest diversity of birds, one-third of all freshwater fish species and more than 60,000 plant species, half of which are found nowhere else, the Amazonian rainforest is one of the last remaining stretches of wilderness on the planet. 1
Unless the different players of the nature conservation community (donors, governments, NGOs, research centers, etc.) coordinate their efforts and financial investments, the region’s biodiversity, and the vast range of services provided by its natural ecosystems, will continue to erode. Increasing human populations and economic activity exert ever growing pressures on the region’s natural resources. From the slopes of the Andes to the mouth of the Amazon, loss of forests and other pristine habitats due to logging, cattle ranching, mining, agriculture, and infrastructure construction continues at rates of up to 9,000 square miles per year. Despite significant investments, conservation objectives set out for the region are still largely unmet. The lack of an integrated system to monitor investments in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in the Andes Amazon Region has been recognized as an important limiting factor for funding and implementing agencies to coordinate investment strategies. So far, efforts to track investment flows in the region have been conducted on an ad-hoc basis, without consistent follow-up from supporting institutions. Although some efforts have been made to coordinate efforts targeted at specific protected areas (Parks In Peril, Eco-Index, ParksWatch, Amazon– Andes Protected Areas Information Database-APAD), an actual monitoring system that allows different interest groups to track conservation investments at the regional level remains to be set up. An information system capable of relating donor programs and interests with actual conservation needs and projects in the field, while also providing detailed and varied statistical data on investment trends is likely to foster greater donor coordination and increase efficiency of resource allocation by reducing the duplication of efforts, leveraging existing resources and exposing funding gaps and inconsistencies. In order to address this issue, the present project aims to develop a state-of-the- art online monitoring system of biodiversity conservation investments and funding opportunities (hereafter called Biodiversity Conservation Investment Database or BCID). Characterized by simplicity and user-friendliness, this monitoring system is meant to satisfy the information needs of a wide variety of stakeholders primarily composed of donors, governments, NGOs, scientists, jobseekers, students, and aspiring volunteers. A premise of this project is that the systematic reporting and monitoring of conservation investments in the region should allow for better priority-setting and fund allocation by the donor community (national environmental funds, multilateral and bilateral donors, governments, and NGOs), resulting in increased efficiency of expenditures and more effective actions on the ground. By providing systematic information on past, present, and future investment trends and on the projects supported and proposed in the region through a structured 2
online monitoring system, the BCID is intended to become the clearinghouse on conservation finance data in the Andes-Amazon region. Focusing on both public and private conservation investments, the BCID will provide information on financial flows by donor category, project type, activity, location, protected species and/or habitat, among other search criteria. Moreover, the system will make it possible to highlight thematic as well as geographic funding gaps and to gauge the sustainability of investment trends in the region. To achieve this objective, the BCID will be composed of the following applications: Fig. 1. The main user applications of the BCID Below is a brief description of these various components: - The ‘ BCID Core ’ database will provide information on past biodiversity conservation investments and allow data consultation and analysis by means of different data visualization and reporting applications, among which an online GIS system (Map Engine ), a multimedia virtual tour system (Project Explorer ) and a statistical analysis tools warehouse (Trend Tracker ), all described and illustrated in Appendix 1 to 3; - The ‘ Grant Navigator ’ database will list current grant programs and future funding opportunities so as to facilitate access to conservation finance data by grantseekers; - The ‘ Grant Seeker ’ database will provide a space for project implementers to post information on their upcoming projects and funding needs using a common grant application format to facilitate review by grantmakers. In order to provide grantseekers and grantmakers with efficient tools to access the data of their interest, both applications will allow users to list investments or projects by geographical location, ecoregion, biome, habitat, project type, proposed activities, 3
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