PRESS RELEASE – LAST Monday, Saint Lucia became the second country to sign its Partnership Agreement with the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF).
The Agreement was signed between the Saint Lucia National Conservation Fund (SLUNCF) and the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund. This comes after nine years of work by the government of Saint Lucia and its non-governmental partners, beginning with the Caribbean Challenge Initiative.
Launched in 2008 at the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP9), the Caribbean Challenge Initiative (CCI) has two goals:
• 20-By-20: In each participating country and territory, to effectively conserve and manage at least 20% of the marine and coastal environment by 2020; and
• Sustainable Finance: To establish fully functioning sustainable financial mechanisms that will provide reliable funding over the long-term. The CBF and its national partner funds are the centerpiece of the CCI’s Sustainable Finance goal.
Established in 2012, the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund is the realization of a bold vision to create reliable, long-term funding for conservation and sustainable development in the Caribbean region. The CBF and its national partner funds and non-governmental organizations support and incentivize Caribbean nations to meet the goals of the Caribbean Challenge Initiative (CCI) and other international and regional commitments.
Saint Lucia is among the eleven countries that are engaged with the CBF to date. Currently, the CBF is funded by the Government of Germany through the German Development Bank (KfW), the Nature Conservancy, and the Global Environment Facility. One of the CBF’s key principles is that national partner funds must create new, sustainable revenue to trigger a 1:1 match from the CBF. The revenue sources could be private and/or public.
The Saint Lucia National Conservation Fund was established in 2015 as part of the five-year Sustainable Financing for Marine Ecosystems in Eastern Caribbean Project, which was funded by the Global Environment Facility and World Bank and implemented by The Nature Conservancy (TNC).
The national implementing agencies were Department of Fisheries, and the Department of Economic Planning. The SLUNCF is a not-for-profit company registered under the Companies Act of Saint Lucia. It has a Board of Directors constituting of both government and non-government organizations with NGOs being in the majority. The main role of the SLUNCF is to fundraise and grant funding for conservation work in Saint Lucia.
With the signing of the Partnership Agreement with the CBF, the SLUNCF has secured sustainable financing for the people of Saint Lucia. The SLUNCF hopes to continue to build national, regional and international relationships to continue to realize the vision of Caribbean Challenge Initiative as well as the vision of the people of Saint Lucia.