Between September 2010 and August 2015 the Wildlands Conservation Trust will be the Regional Implementing Team for a US$6.65 million investment by the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund in the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Global Biodiversity Hotspot. In this role Wildlands is responsible for soliciting, designing and awarding grants to civil society organisations and community groups that will protect biodiversity in the Hotspot and strengthen the role of civil society in conservation in South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique. The appointment of Wildlands as Regional Implementation Team for this investment affirms the growing role of the Trust as one of the leading conservation NGOs in the Southern African region and presents new opportunities for partnerships and relationships between conservation NGOs in South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique.

The Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund

The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is designed to safeguard the world's threatened biodiversity Hotspots in developing countries. It is a joint initiative of Conservation International (CI), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation, the World Bank and the French Development Agency. CEPF supports projects in biodiversity Hotspots, areas with more than 50 percent of the Earth’s terrestrial species endemic in only 1.4 percent of its land surface. CEPF therefore offers an opportunity to promote the conservation of some of the most important ecosystems in the world.

A fundamental purpose of CEPF is to ensure that civil society is actively participating in conserving biodiversity in the Hotspots, expanding the responsibility for biodiversity beyond the state, but ensuring that their efforts complement existing strategies and frameworks established by local, regional and national governments. As such, the CEPF aims to promote working alliances among community groups, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), government, academic institutions and the private sector, to support government strategies by combining unique capacities in a comprehensive approach to conservation.

CEPF is unique among funding mechanisms in that it focuses on biological areas rather than political boundaries and examines conservation threats on a Hotspot-wide basis. From this perspective, CEPF seeks to identify and support a regional, rather than a national, approach to achieving conservation outcomes and engages a wide range of public and private institutions to address conservation needs through coordinated regional efforts.

About the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Hotspot

The Hotspot is roughly the size of New Zealand (274,000 km2) and is located along the east coast of southern Africa, below the Great Escarpment. In terms of species diversity, the region is the second richest floristic region in southern Africa (after the Cape Floristic Region) and, for its size, also in Africa. An estimated 8,100 species occur within the region of which at least 1,900 (23%) species are endemic to the region. In total, there are 615 species of special conservation concern within the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Hotspot listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as Vulnerable (364), Endangered (162) and Critically Endangered (89). At a habitat level, one type of forest, three types of thicket, six types of bushveld, and five types of grasslands are endemic to the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Hotspot.

Economic development coupled with a rapidly growing population is placing significant pressure on biodiversity in the Hotspot and hundreds of species are at risk of extinction as the ecosystems upon which they depend on are transformed or degraded. Paralleling the natural diversity, the cultural and socio-economic diversity of the region is incredibly high. From residents of the urban centers of Maputo, Durban, and Port Elizabeth to commercial farmers and foresters, to traditional pastoral cultures of the Zulu, Xhosa, and Swazi are all dependent on the region’s natural resources for their livelihoods and well-being. For more information visit our website. www.wildlands.co.za or join our facebook page http://onfb.me.jgOMnC