Cape Verde, a small insular and archipelagic country, exposed to economic and environmental vulnerabilities, requires appropriate strategies for the management of the nation’s natural resources. has ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1995 and in 1999 drafted the national strategy and action plan on Biodiversity. On 24 February 2003 the Decree-Law No. 3/2003 on the legal regime of natural areas was published, which creates 47 protected areas, subdivided into 6 categories: national park, natural park, natural reserves, protected landscape, natural monument and sites of scientific interest. With the legal mandate to protect natural areas, guaranteed by that decree, there is a need to elaborate appropriate management tools, which are fundamental to sound management of natural and cultural resources in a sustainable manner. In this context the Government of Cape Verde obtained funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to implement a project entitled "Consolidation of Cape Verde’s Protected Area System". It is a national execution project and is implemented by the General Directorate for Environment (DGA) through its Project Management Unit in Praia as well as its two Project Site Units on Santo Antao and Fogo, as well as its two Island-Wide Offices (IWO) on Sal and Boavista, with the following objective: “To consolidate and strengthen protected areas (PA) System through the establishment of new terrestrial and marine PA units and the promotion of participatory approaches to conservation” The project will: - Strengthen the legal, policy, institutional and financial framework to support an expanded protected land and seascape estate.
- Support the establishment of a Protected Area Autonomous Authority (PAAA) with a technically and managerially capable staff complement.
- Forge strategic partnerships for enhancing the overall sustainability of the Protected Area (PA) system, including improvements in its financial sustainability. The governance framework to be supported by the project will result in improvements in the management effectiveness of the entire national PA system, through capacity strengthening of institutions and units, management and business planning, policies, laws, and regulations.
The project is divided into three components (based on outcomes) for implementation as follows: Outcome 1: Strengthened governance framework for the expansion, consolidation and sustainability of the National PA system. - Under Outcome 1, the PA governance supportive frameworks for ’s PA system will be strengthened in terms of policy, legal, institutional and financial aspects, and the total coverage of coastal marine areas will be increased. A Protected Areas Autonomous Authority (PAAA) will be created, which will be staffed and engaged in strategic partnerships, with a mandate to coordinate and enforce integrated PA planning and management.
Outcome 2: Enhanced management effectiveness at selected terrestrial and coastal/marines PA’s. - Under Outcome 2, the project will make operational four terrestrial Natural Parks (on Fogo, São Vicente and Santo Antão) and three MPAs (on Sal and Boavista), extending PA management to five islands that have not previously benefited from a GEF intervention.
Outcome 3: Strengthened PAs through community mobilization, sectoral engagement and local capacity building for sustainable resource management within PAs/MPAs and adjacent areas.
- Under Outcome 3, the project will ensure the sustainability of all efforts towards a consolidated, expanded and more effective PA system in . Both terrestrial and marine protected areas are impacted by activities of communities living within and around their boundaries, as well as by other economic actors and decision-makers.
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