Announcement of the World Bank's Social Development and Compensation Fund to Peru on December 20, 1993

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE G lhe World Bank 1818 H Sreet. N.w o2) Fa -1234 INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT Washington, D.C. 20433 able Address: INTBAFRAD INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION US.A. Cable Address: INDEVAS Bank News Release No. 94/s42 Contact: Jan Pakulski Tel: (202)-473-1797 GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY (GEF) TO PROTECT BIODIVERSITY IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC DATE: December 29, 1993 GEF GRANT: $2.0 Million TOTAL COST: US$ 2.750 Million OTHER PROPOSED FINANCING: Austria Eco-Fund $500,000, USDA Forest Service $50,000 (Professional Development and Training), Czech Republic $200,000. IMPLEMENTING AGENCY: Ministry of Environment ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: 1996 PROJECT DESCRIPTION: A grant agreement to protect internationally important biodiversity was signed on December 23, 1993, by the World Bank acting as a trustee of the Global Environment Facility and the Czech Republic. PROJECT OBJECTIVES: This project is designed to strengthen the biodiversity conservation effort in the Czech Republic, and will foster the following programs: * A Biodiversity Protection Program will develop management techniques for key biotypes (forest, wetlands and alpine meadows), foster community support for the protected reserve system and particularly for the sustainable management of forest systems adjacent to the protected areas, and develop specific ex-situ conservation measures where in-situ ecosystem protection and restoration are difficult; * A Conservation Program will generate revenue for the protected area system, examine the feasibility of managing the visitation level with economic mechanisms, foster interactions with local communities and land management in the adjacent forest systems; and begin demonstration activities (particularly in the ecosystems in the selected transborder regions); and * An Institutional Infrastructure Improvement Program which will provide support for project management coordination at the national level and in the three selected zones of threatened ecosystems, for professional development and training, and for a small grants program (administered in coordination with the Prague office of the European Trust for Natural and Cultural Wealth) for environmental-focused Czech NGOs. The Czech biodiversity project represents the completion of the first round of a series of five interrelated initiatives in Eastern and Central Europe (Belarus, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine). These initiatives are timely given the need to address the protection of biodiversity in the rapidly changing economic situation of these countries in transition. The regional networking of these GEF projects has established an encouraging model for cooperating on transboundary conservation protection, a model unique for the Region. ITT 440098 RCA 248423 WUI 64145