About the project
Context of the Amazon region
The Amazon biome significantly contributes to the maintenance of essential ecosystem functions and provides environmental services that are crucial for society, economy, and biodiversity at local, national, regional and global levels. However, the Amazon is increasingly threatened by various economic, social and political activities, both legal and illegal.
Large scale infrastructure projects, mining, farming, lack of planning, a weak governance and the lack of an integrated system with a sustainable vision of the Amazon, threatens the livelihood of more than 380 indigenous groups and 44 million people living in the region. These threats have caused the loss of nearly 3.6 million hectares per year between 2000 and 2010.
IAPA - Amazon Vision
Integration of the Amazon Biome Protected Areas (IAPA) - Amazon Vision, is a project financed by the European Union, which seeks to create a network around protected areas systems located in the Amazon region.
The project started as a support to the regional initiative Vision for Preserving the Diversity of the Amazon Biome Based on the Ecosystems, proposed in 2008 by the Latin American Technical Cooperation Network in National Parks, other protected areas and wildlife – Redparques.
Its aim is to increase the ecosystem’s resilience to climate change, maintaining the supply of environmental goods and services, which benefit biodiversity, local communities and their economies.
Implementing partners
Under the coordination of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the project will be implemented together with WWF, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Expected results
The project is structured around 5 expected results that relate to the components of the Work Plan on Protected Areas of Redparques:
1.Consolidation of the Amazon Vision
By 2018, the regional technical coordination between protected areas systems of the Amazon countries and the operational management structure for the coordination of the Vision for the Conservation of the Amazon Biome will be strengthened.
2.Conservation Opportunities
By 2018, two conservation landscapes have been defined and action plans will start being implemented.
3.Governance, participation, equity and shared benefits
By 2018, the participation of indigenous communities, local communities, protected areas authorities and other strategic stakeholders will increase in order to conduct a joint work on two prioritized landscapes.
4.Financial sustainability
By 2018, a financing strategy has been designed in order to support the implementation of the Amazon Conservation Vision’s Action Plan (2010-2020) and the mechanisms for the financial sustainability of two conservation landscapes that are in process of implementation.
5.Management effectiveness of the Protected Areas
By 2018, Redparques has a protocol for measuring management effectiveness of protected areas, applied from an Amazon biome level.
Intervention Area
The project will be developed in eight countries that make up the Amazon territory – Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Surinam and Venezuela-
REDPARQUES
Redparques is a technical alliance between the institutions responsible for the administration and management of protected areas, private institutions and specialists from 19 countries in Latin America, created with the aim of contributing to the conservation of biological diversity of the region, and the development of national systems of protected areas. FAO has acted as the technical secretariat during all these years and has provided an invaluable technical and economic contribution to its performance.
Its five main objectives are: a) promote technical cooperation among the countries of the region; b) promote human resources training; c) strengthen the technical capacity of the national institutions dedicated to the conservation of protected areas; d) promote the confidence of the countries in their work on protected areas and e) accelerate the institutional development through the pursuit of greater efficiency in the use of human, physical and financial resources.