The Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+) is an initiative of the European Union (EU) to help the world’s most vulnerable countries to address climate change. In Guinea Bissau, the GCCA+ project focused on strengthening governance systems to support climate resilient development and reduce deforestation in the protected areas system.
The project provided 4 million euros between 2016 and 2022 to several activities focused on enhancing the capacities of the communities and the management teams within the protected areas, which were implemented by the Institute for Biodiversity and Protected Areas of Guinea-Bissau (IBAP). Activities included monitoring, consultation with users of resources in protected areas, management council meetings, identification and recovery of degraded areas, forestry protection, collection of seeds of endangered / emblematic species for reforestation, and installation of nurseries.
The BioGuinea Foundation has been instrumental for the successful closure of this project in the first half of 2022. Under the terms of the contract with the EU, IBAP was required to advance the final 10% of project funds for implementation of project activities, which will be subsequently reimbursed, following the end-project evaluation. As IBAP did not have resources available for this, the Foundation used its endowment fund to help IBAP fulfil this requirement. This was a good example on how an endowment fund for protected areas provides the country the needed resources for long-term conservation efforts and for continuity.