UNDP provides $4.5M for biodiversity conservation

Non-government organizations NGO engaged in biodiversity conservation now have access to a $4.5 million grant facility of the United Nations Development Programme UNDP) managed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

The UNDP recently launched the fifth operational phase of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Small Grants Program (SGP) in the Philippines, a continuation of the first four phases that had been implemented in the country since 1992.

The fifth phase of the SGP aims to improve the sustainability of protected areas through community-based actions.

“UNDP is fully committed in community empowerment. We see effective models of biodiversity management at community levels and by the communities, and we want these models communicated to other communities and the whole world so that we can replicate best practices,” said UNDP country director Murice Dewulf during the program launch in Ortigas.

The fourth operational phase of the project, which was implemented between 2008 until last year, received total funding of $1.8 million

Dewulf said the budget for the fifth phase was hiked to $4.5 million because of “increased demand from local communities.” The fifth phase of the small grants program would be implemented until July 2017.

Country program manager Rodolfo Ferdinand Quicho said projects that enhance the capability of small communities in the protection of natural resources in their areas would be prioritized in the awarding of grants.

“Small communities are the best protectors of the natural resources in their areas,” he said.

The GEF-SGP could provide grants of as much as $50,000 per project, giving some 60 to 80 new biodiversity projects an opportunity for funding under the fifth phase.

Out of the total funding of $4.5 million, $3.5 million would be given out in actual grants while the remainder would be used to fund the management of the program.

To be prioritized in the provision of grants are biodiversity conservation projects in Palawan, Samar Island (northern, estern and western Samar) and the Sierra Madre region (Laguna, Rizal, Quezon, Bulacan, Aurora, Quirino, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela, and Cagayan).