In Colombia, an innovative national commitment among public and private actors will expand and improve the governance of protected areas and other conservation strategies, embraced as fundamental to the country's natural and social wealth. "Herencia Colombia" is a new "Project Finance for Permanence" program led by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Natural National Parks, Natural Heritage, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, CI, WCS and WWF, and with the support of GEF, Heart of the Amazon and the World Bank, among others.
The program aims to achieve the international goals that Colombia has set to conserve and increase its protected areas and guarantee their integration into landscapes and sectors, through the design and subsequent implementation of a long-term financing model for the National System of Areas. Protected (SINAP). The efforts will likewise contribute to the Sustainable Development goals, the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change, the 2030 Agenda, the Aichi targets; in addition to the National Development Plan, CONPES, the National Policy for the Integral Management of Biodiversity and its Ecosystem Services and the National Policy on Climate Change, among others.
The recent end to armed conflict in Colombia has brought both a series of challenges and also opportunities for conservation. The end of the war implies, among other things, a reduction in the environmental impacts generated by the disputes that were fought in many protected areas; However, this very end represents the beginning of new risks to the environment. Currently, there greater access and new development opportunities have emerged in previously unexplored parts of the country, many with high levels of biodiversity.
"There is no more valuable legacy that we can pass on to future generations than all the natural wealth that characterizes the second most biodiverse country in the world: Colombia. We are the country with the greatest diversity of birds and orchids, the second in plants, amphibians, butterflies and freshwater fish, the third in palms and reptiles and the fourth in mammals (according to the Information System for Biodiversity-SIB). Much of this biodiversity is what supports vital ecosystem services such as water, food, climate regulation, among others. We are a megadiverse country that must strive for the conservation of all this wealth of natural capital, which is endangered by different factors." -- The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development
Read more: "Nace Herencia Colombia: el programa para proteger nuestro capital natural para siempre"
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