This project will assist the Government of Vanuatu to:
- improve biodiversity conservation by creating new terrestrial and marine protected areas (35,000 ha) following a "ridge-to-reef “approach (R2R)
- support sustainable forest, land and coastal management in the watersheds linking these protected areas (100,000 ha) and improve the livelihoods of local communities living in these areas (+8,000 ha) and
- build capacity in sustainable forest, land and coastal management techniques, protected area management and other conservation techniques and monitoring and evaluation of biodiversity, land-use and land-use change.
Target Locations
The Project will work at field level in 5 Target locations, where it will demonstrate the generation of multiple environmental and social benefits through the application of the “ridge to reef” model of resource management. The Principal criterion used for the selection of these target localities was therefore the existence of global environmental values that are under threat, and whose maintenance requires the application of a landscape wide “ridge to reef “approach.
Justifications for selection
Three of the target locations (on Aneityum, Tanna and Efate) Have not been directly covered by previous GEF projects; in the other two (South Pentecost And Gaua), The project will build upon advances made by regional GEF4 Project 3819 (“PAS: Forestry And Protected Area Management). The Bulk of project effort and resources will be focused on the three new locations; on the others, it will take advantage of the institutional and social bases supported through the previous project and therefore require a lower level of investment, and on Gaua In particular project actions will be relatively limited, focusing on adding the incremental focus of the present project to the earlier investments.