Conservation Finance Guide
Full Review

Reviewed by: Cinnamon Dornsife, Adjunct Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, USA
Review posted 3 February 2004
Review No. 9

CD-ROM Information

Content: User-friendly information and tools are provided to help the user assess conservation finance mechanisms.
Publication Date: 1 August 2003
Audience: Government officials, protected area managers, conservation NGOs, technical consultants, donor agencies.

Size: 97.8 MB
Price: Free
Manual needed: Yes. Included with CD-ROM.
How to order:

Order online.*

Order by mail:
Alain Lambert
UNEP-Division of Global Environment Facility Co-ordination
P.O.Box 30552
Nairobi, Kenya

E-mail: alain.lambert@unep.org
Tel: +254 20 624 085

*This link takes you outside the ADBI website. Please use the back button to return to ADBI.org.

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Full Review

This guide is produced by the Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA), a broad-based alliance of NGOs, multilateral and bilateral organizations. The CD-ROM's main purpose is to provide practical tools to promote the expansion of sustainable finance mechanisms able to generate long term funding for biodiversity conservation. The guide includes well-proven options such as, tourism user fees and conservation trust funds. The CD-ROM also addresses promising new measures such as, ecosystem service payments, or "green bonds." These innovative new mechanisms are intended for protected areas used to relying on short term grant financing. The new financing mechanisms may be divided into three levels of conservation action: site, national/regional and international.

The CD-ROM is intended to serve as a central element of a much broader conservation finance capacity building program, which will ultimately include an interactive website, conservation finance workbook series, curriculum, training workshops and regional technical assistance units.

The CFA hopes that the Conservation Finance Guide will expand the use of sustainable, long term conservation finance mechanisms and identifies specific gaps that are filled by this CD-ROM, including: accessible and clear language for non-experts, clear methodologies, the need for a systematic approach, identifying the newest "cutting edge" mechanisms and providing technical resources.

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Content

In addition to a useful introduction and manual (both of which should be read to get started), the guide contains tools to develop business plans for protected areas, enabling users to: develop a management plan, quantify financial needs, identify existing and potential new funding sources and to develop a fund raising strategy. Detailed information is available on a full range of financing options including: bilateral and multilateral donors, biodiversity enterprise funds, bio-prospecting, carbon offset projects, debt swaps, environmental funds, fiscal instruments, foundations, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), marine protected areas, payments for watershed services, resource extraction fees and tourism-based fees. Annexes contain a range of associated information and tools, including resource documents, case studies and Excel spread sheet tools. It should be noted that each chapter does not have resource tools, spread sheets and case studies, and their inclusion in each chapter is dependent upon the topic or the current availability of the information.

The CD-ROM contains a general reference section and national strategy case studies. Current contact information for each of the members of the Conservation Finance Alliance is included, as are presentations made at the 5th World Parks Congress held in Durban, South Africa in September 2003.

The business plan development chapter provides an easy to use, comprehensive set of components and steps required to prepare and implement a protected area management plan. Business planning gives a clear picture of financial needs and the potential revenue sources required to meet those needs. The guide takes the approach that protected areas provide real economic benefits to individuals and to society as a whole. These benefits (including: clean air, clean water, hydroelectricity, wildlife, and tourist areas) are often not fully recognized, or compensated. The business plan chapter identifies financial sources and opportunities offered for which existing and potential end users might pay. A useful and illustrative table lists ways of valuing biodiversity goods and services, linking each to specific financial mechanisms, such as: climate change mitigation, the carbon market, genetic materials for pharmaceutical use and bio-prospecting payments, or clean drinking water and fees.

Each of the chapters on financing options can either serve as a stand-alone reference guide on the topic, or, more powerfully, as options to consider among possible financing mechanisms for protected areas. The authors have done an excellent job in summarizing and simplifying the information on a range of complex topics. Especially useful is the table in each chapter summarizing pros and cons of that mechanism.

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Users

Government officials, protected area managers, conservation NGOs, technical consultants and donor agencies. (Note: The CFA regards these as the five target audiences most critical to putting innovative conservation finance mechanisms in place, with a special focus on the protected area manager.)

Interactivity and User Friendliness

The authors correctly note that conservation finance is not an easy subject, and the guide is designed to increase awareness and understanding of a range of finance mechanisms. It is especially targeted at users with little expertise or experience in this area. Users are encouraged to understand, select, assess and implement the most appropriate finance mechanisms for their needs. The tools are intended as starting points for putting long term financing mechanisms in place.

Navigating the guide is clearly explained in a special "How-To" section of the CD-ROM.

Word format is available and is useful for those wishing to print entire chapters, and for those without Internet access. It must be noted that Word text users will find that the hyperlinks sometimes do not activate to the designated places in the chapters, or if web pages have been updated since the CD-ROM was produced.

A document search engine is included but the user must have Internet access for this feature.

The CD-ROM is highly interactive if the user has Internet access. If the user does not have access to the Internet, the CD-ROM is less interactive due to the hyperlink and document search problems previously discussed.

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Sustainability

The Conservation Finance Guide fails to clearly distinguish between its established elements, and its components that are still in the planning stages. This should be addressed, given that the guide is the centerpiece of the conservation finance capacity building program. There is likely to be substantial interest in follow up training programs, and as yet, right now there is no formal structure in place for these training programs. The CFA intends to field test the guide and refine it even further. People interested in participating in training programs and field-testing should contact the CFA directly.

Protected area managers or others accessing this guide on their own should be aware that considerable time will be required to make full use of all the information and tools. For example, teams must be available to undertake the analysis, planning, implementation and follow up. To make full use of the mechanisms and to observe their long-term impact, a commitment of at least five to ten years is required. However, for those looking for a good accessible overview to a complex and little understood subject, the CD ROM fills an important immediate need.

Some chapters provide a full range of international examples, such as the chapters on fiscal instruments and marine protected areas, while others like debt swaps rely more on US examples. To be of maximum use to international audiences, global and regional examples should always be included in each chapter.

The CD-ROM is a replica of the website www.guide.conservationfinance.org.* It offers most of the features of that site. However, users must have an Internet connection to use the search function located in the upper right hand corner of every page. Hyperlinks will function more reliably with Internet access. While noted clearly on the CD ROM, this makes it less powerful as a stand-alone tool.

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