GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY PLEDGES $6 MILLION TO UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENT-RELATED PROJECT
Press Release
UNU/186
GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY PLEDGES $6 MILLION TO UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENT-RELATED PROJECT
19970624 NEW YORK, 24 June (UNU) -- The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has pledged $6.17 million over a period of four years to a United Nations University (UNU) project called "People, Land Management and Environmental Change", or UNU/PLEC, which is a demonstration and capacity-building project that aims to conserve biological diversity in managed agricultural ecosystems.The members of the project work in close cooperation with small-scale farmers and pastoralists. They are documenting and learning from the indigenous ways that these farmers use to preserve biodiversity on lands that lie at the margins of forests, semi-arid regions, mountains, wetlands and land corridors. These plant-saving strategies can then be used to help other communities where biodiversity is at risk.
The project works through locally based "clusters" which have already been established in several areas: west Africa, east Africa, south-east Asia, Papua New Guinea and the Amazon region. It creates an innovative developing-country network, enabling its members in each of these clusters to communicate easily, exchange information and learn from each other.
The funding provided by the GEF will finance a major expansion of the work done by the projects' "regional clusters", especially in the setting-up and development of demonstration sites where they seek out, measure and demonstrate sustainable and conservationist practices evolved by local farmers. Capacity-building and networking among the members will also be enhanced.
The Washington-based GEF provides funding to projects that will have global benefits in one of four areas: biological diversity, climate change, international waters and the ozone layer. The University's project responds to the first area -- the conservation of biological diversity. The Facility's activities are implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank.
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