Challenges in the financing of Marine Protection Areas was the theme of the meeting between representatives of BIOFUND, WWF and Conservation Finance International, during the last week of 21-25 October 2019, in the United States of America.

Represented by Luis Honwana, Executive Director, Sean Nazerali, Director of Innovative Financing and Anabela Rodrigues, Member of the Board of Directors, BIOFUND shared its experiences and plans on combining the use of traditional financing tools and the application of innovative mechanisms such as the use of endowment revenues and an adequate implementation of the Mitigation Hierarchy and Biodiversity Offset, among others, which are expected to be useful for financing the Primeiras e Segundas Environmental Protection Area.

In addition to the meeting with WWF, the Mozambican delegation shared with the Global Environment Fund part of the progress achieved recently. This meeting was attended by representatives of the World Bank TNC and USAID. Highlights the presence of George Ledec, chief scientist of the World Bank, who in 2016 led the process of drafting the roadmap for the implementation of an Aggregate Biodiversity Offset System in the Country. Meanwhile the World Bank through representatives from their delegation in Mozambique to the conservation sector recognized the important role that BIOFUND has been playing in the implementation of its strategies.

The Mozambican delegation was quite happy with the results of the various meetings held in Washington. According to the Innovative Financing Director, the delegation had the opportunity to talk to the Conservation Finance team about the possibilities of trying to create a Partnership for Permanence program for Mozambique. The first experience of this type of initiative took place in Brazil, through the ARPA program, and essentially aims to create a fund lasting approximately 20 or 30 years to transform conservation areas. For Sean Nazerali, Mozambique has several advantages in building a fund with this approach, one of which is that it has already completed a financial needs assessment of requirements to change the level of consolidation of conservation areas.

BIOFUND has learned that the Conservation Finance Alliance as part of its 10-year review is preparing a series of case studies including one on Mozambique. It is expected that this activity can contribute to the international visibility of this Mozambican foundation which currently has 4 years of operational existence.