Results

Since the mid-1990s GTZ has been helping countries to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Experience has shown that conservation measures on the ground only bear fruit if a policy-making process is supported in tandem. GTZ provides for this in the form of dialogue processes, awareness raising, knowledge management and capacity development at all levels. The education and participation of civil society are key factors. For if biodiversity – the livelihood base of local people – is to be preserved in the long term, the relevant processes must always be supported, and often even initiated, “from the bottom up”.

Shaping the framework

How can access to genetic resources and benefit sharing (ABS) be regulated in detail? In the Philippines, for example, GTZ works with the relevant government body and with local environmental and development organisations to resolve this question. Dialogue between the government and indigenous groups was initiated and led to revision of national legislation. Local communities are now more strongly involved in decisions and assume greater responsibility. On the basis of the experience gained BMZ formulated its position on bioprospection – the systematic search for new active ingredients in natural materials.

Increasing numbers of other clients are also contacting GTZ on account of its expertise in matters relating to ABS.

Protecting nature

GTZ helps protected area administrations draw up and implement management plans. This is often a matter of decentralising decision-making structures and involving the local population. As a result, conservation and usage interests are reconciled and the proceeds of use are distributed more fairly. This is illustrated strikingly by the successful examples of the Pendjari Park (Benin) or the Makuleke project in the Kruger National Park (South Africa).

In a project on integrated coastal zone management carried out with a Panamanian environmental organisation, diverse stakeholders were brought together and a participatory monitoring system was set up. As a result, the area is now recognised as a wetland of international importance.

Securing food

Genetic diversity is key to food security and a functioning agricultural system. Important questions on the conservation of agrobiodiversity need to be asked in this context:

• To whom do the local biological resources belong? 
• How can the traditional contribution of smallholder breeders be honoured? 
• What incentives are there for farmers to continue utilising traditional varieties and breeds?

GTZ produces recommendations showing how to tap the value of traditional agricultural products. The private sector has already accepted these products and now carries out projects jointly with the farmers.

In southern Africa GTZ has conducted workshops on the genetic resources of farm animals. The strategies formulated at the workshops are now being discussed in international forums such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Communicating biodiversity

“One only protects what one knows” – that is the slogan of Biodiversity Day, an international event organised since 2001 by GTZ in cooperation with the magazine GEO. Schoolchildren and students, local groups, scientists, prominent politicians and the media work together to monitor an ecosystem over a 24-hour period. The day has so far been held in Colombia, China, Brazil, Mali, Honduras and Viet Nam; on each occasion it has received wide media coverage and resulted in public discussion of the value of biological diversity. In Honduras the day of action focusing on the Rio Platano lagoon was accompanied by a journalists’ seminar and gave rise to a free environmental press.