Biodiversity Programme
The mission of the Biodiversity Programme at the Regional Office for Africa is to enhance conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems, inside and outside the Protected Area systems - including forests, and optimize their contribution to sustainable development, at community, national, and regional levels.
The core areas are;
Biodiversity:Every country in Africa has unique biodiversity and valuable ecosystems that are of both national and global importance. Therefore, improved land-use planning at national and local levels should be employed in the conservation process. Existing methods as well as developing and implementing new approaches should be based on:
| Further Resources |
| International Day for Biological Diversity - 22 May 2007 UNEP Resources on Biodiversity Convention on Biological Diversity |
>> Activities in the Programme
Integrating biodiversity conservation in all land-use planning |
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Developing innovative combinations of traditional and modern productive and conservative systems based on needs of government and other stakeholders |
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Strengthening the role and capacity of the private sector and local communities to sustainably manage biodiversity |
The Regional Office of Africa provides support to the activities aimed at safeguarding biodiversity, sustaining ecosystem processes, and contributing to livelihoods and sustainable development. These invariably include:
Project proposals to build capacity in biodiversity conservation in response to African needs identified in the NEPAD Environment Action Plan and the AMCEN Work plan |
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Technical support for capacity building projects to enhance implementation of international and related regional biodiversity conventions and processes |
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Policies and activities which recognize the importance of, and promotes the conservation of biodiversity conservation outside protected areas |
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Activities related to post-conflict assessment and reconstruction in the context of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management |
Protected Areas:
Protected areas play a central role in the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. Actions that must be taken to ensure maximum achievement of values of protected areas include:
Advice and technical support to projects by countries in development and management of protected areas |
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Advice and technical support to governments in biodiversity, protected areas, and eco-systems management and their contribution to sustainable development |
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Support to the implementation of International Biodiversity Conventions, through for example designating sites comprising: Wildlife Parks, World Heritage Sites, Biosphere Reserves, Ramsar Sites |
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Involving a wider range of actors among those who initiate and manage protected areas, comprising community and private conservancies |
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Contributing to processes to broaden understanding of the range of possibilities encompassed in the definition of protected area categories, to embrace parts of the lived-in, agro-ecosystems and landscapes |
For more information on the activities of the Biodiversity Office please contact:
| Nehemiah Rotich, Senior Programme Officer - Biodiversity, UNEP Regional Office for Africa (ROA) Phone :(254 20) 762 4630 Email: nehemiah.rotich@unep.org |
Angèle Luh- Sy, Information Officer, UNEP Regional Office for Africa, Tel: (254 20) 762 4292, E-mail: Angele.Luh@unep.org |