Agriculture, Environmental Policy & Natural Resource Management
Special Interest
Managing natural resources that are crucial to a country's long term prosperity such as water, forests, biodiversity and croplands is the corollary to the Agency's economic growth agenda.
In FY 2005 the Agency invested $1 billion in agriculture and environment programs, or 9 percent of its total budget. In FY 2006, the Agency has allocated $904 million for agriculture and environment programs, 10 percent of its total budget. Biodiversity programs are a large part of USAID's natural resource management and environment programming, and as a special interest issue, are described below.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity, and the ecosystems that sustain biodiversity, are a foundation of human well-being. For instance, healthy ecosystems purify water and keep agricultural pests in check. USAID recognizes that improving livelihoods, security, and human health depends on the conservation of biodiversity in healthy ecosystems.
In FY 2006, the Agency has allocated $163.8 million of the Development Assistance (DA) account towards biodiversity conservation. This represents 11 percent of the FY 2006 DA budget. In FY 2007, the Agency has similarly set 11 percent of its DA budget request aside for biodiversity conservation, for a total of $141 million.
Program Emphasis
USAID is one of the largest bilateral donors for biodiversity conservation. Agency biodiversity programs link conservation with development. While biodiversity is a global resource, it is also a critical local resource providing economic opportunities, watershed protection and cultural values.
USAID's approach to conservation has evolved since the 1980s from a focus on managing protected areas to today emphasizing participatory biodiversity conservation across large landscapes. The current approach recognizes that much of the world's biodiversity is not in protected areas and cannot be conserved in isolated parcels. This approach underscores that local stakeholders' participation in conservation is critical to its success.
USAID emphasizes activities that reduce key threats to biodiversity in priority landscapes. Since the threats to biodiversity are wide-ranging, from local small-scale agriculture to industrial timber production, the tools available for conservation are equally varied. Biodiversity conservation practitioners apply a range of tools such as negotiating the adoption of best practices for mining and logging, strengthening local enforcement of legal protections, and raising awareness among communities with a crucial stewardship role to play.
Biodiversity conservation is a global issue that can contribute to other Agency core goals. The Agency has applied its increased understanding of how conservation supports disaster response and prevention, conflict, democracy and governance to help meet goals in all areas. In addition, the Agency increasingly applies cross-sectoral approaches to conservation and development, working collaboratively between a range of sectors such as population, health, extractive industry, and enterprise.
Program Successes
USAID is working to conserve biodiversity in more than 45 countries, including the majority of the world's most biodiverse countries. Agency successes include USAID's Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE). CARPE works beyond protected areas to meet the challenge of landscape-scale conservation in the Congo Basin by protecting 12 large tracts of relatively intact wilderness and other areas of unique ecological importance. CARPE does this by building people's skills and institutional capacity in nine Central African countries. CARPE has extended improved conservation in nearly 28 million hectares of biologically significant tropical forest throughout Central Africa to date, including 16 million hectares of national parks and protected areas, seven million hectares of commercial forestry concessions, and five million hectares of community forests and reserves.
The "Parks in Peril" program in Latin America and the Caribbean is one of the largest international conservation programs in the world. This program has strengthened the capacity of more than 35 governmental and non-governmental organizations to support conservation within 45 protected areas. It covers 18 million hectares in 17 countries. Since 1990, the capacity that Parks in Peril has created among its partner organizations has attracted an additional $400 million to support conservation of these and other sites in the region.
In the Asia and Near East region, USAID works to conserve terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity in eight countries. In Indonesia, for example, USAID is helping to protect endangered orangutans and their habitat. USAID is working with villages and local governments to provide direct benefits such as a health and clean water program and alternative livelihoods to six communities. In return, these communities have signed agreements to stop illegal logging and not to hunt orangutans. In total, over 530,000 hectares of orangutan habitat is being conserved.
Challenges Ahead
Sustained success in biodiversity conservation will require new approaches to existing challenges. Threats to biodiversity continue to grow in complexity and become more widespread, damaging the very ecosystems on which human well-being depends. Agricultural, fishery and industrial expansion, poor development planning, and resource overexploitation have historically caused the greatest losses to biodiversity. Climate change, pollution, over-hunting and over-harvesting of species, and invasive species will compound these losses. The deterioration of ecosystems providing goods and services contributes to worsening human health, higher food insecurity, increasing vulnerability and conflict, and decreasing material wealth.
For example, the ecosystems of the Amazon Basin suffer from a multitude of threats including unsustainable ranching, agriculture, logging, mining, petroleum exploration and fishing. USAID's Amazon Basin Conservation Initiative is designing and implementing integrated approaches which address these threats while supporting socio-economic development in the region. Other similar challenges complicate the conservation of endangered species such as gorillas and other great apes.
Addressing current trends and future biodiversity losses will require improvements in governance systems, institutions and political will. Market-based approaches can contribute to both economic growth and biodiversity conservation. Sustained investments in and creative financing of effective organizations and programs are essential for long-term biodiversity conservation. Innovative partnerships, scaling-up proven and new approaches, and managing adaptively are also key elements to successfully stemming biodiversity loss.
Strategic Allocation of Resources
For FY 2005 and FY 2006, the Agency engaged in a strategic budgeting process to better align biodiversity funding with global priorities for biodiversity conservation. This process is incremental, recognizing both the imperfections in data currently available and the time needed to transition from old to new programs.
In FY 2006, Development Assistance (DA) funding for biodiversity will be distributed as follows: Africa - 35 percent, Latin America and Caribbean - 34 percent, Asia and Near East - 17 percent, central programs - 14 percent.
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