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Protect Areas Management (PAM) Project, Yemen

Case Study C0202
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Date2004
AgencyWorld Bank
Donor/support agencyGEF
UNDP
Environmental Protection Council
Project typeImplemented by agency
Context(s)Protected area
Geographic coverageYemen
LocalityHodeidah and Mahra Governorates
Biodiversity focusForest ecosystem
Development focusLocal communities
Conservation goalsConserve biodiversity of global significance in Yemen
Poverty reduction goalsPromote sustainable, community-based management of Bura’a and Hawf forests

Summary
The Protect Areas Management (PAM) project is intended to be a pilot project for the development of community-based protected area management in Yemen. It focuses on two distinct areas of forest that are threatened by substantial degradation and that are of undoubted significance in regional and global biodiversity terms: the forests in Bura’a in Hodeidah Governorate and in Hawf in Mahra Governorate. The project is based on the priorities identified in the National Environmental Action Plan and the National Biodiversity Strategy, and is consequently strongly rooted in the wider conservation policy context of the Government of Yemen. Both of these policy frameworks identified the protection of unique forest ecosystems in arid and semi-arid mountainous areas as key priorities.

The overall project objective is to conserve biodiversity of global significance in Yemen through the protection, maintenance and enhancement of forest ecosystems in arid and semi-arid mountainous areas by promoting sustainable, community-based management of two selected forest ecosystems and by developing replicable systems for preserving biodiversity in Yemen. The approach adopted, through the development of mechanisms for sustainable management by local communities, means that the generation of local benefits is fundamental to any prospect of the attainment of the global environmental goals. More specifically, the approach followed in the implementation of the project includes the following key elements: i) enhancement of the policy, institutional, legal and regulatory framework to support and sustain community management of protected areas; ii) preparation of detailed protected area management plans; iii) enhancement of the quantity and quality of biological resources in the two areas and the development of mechanisms for long-term biodiversity monitoring.

The Protect Areas Management (PAM) project, which was launched in 1999, is still in progress. To date, some outputs have been produced for Bura’a Protected Area, but these are generally of a poor quality and have been prepared with little or no community involvement. However, in Hawf effective progress has been achieved in several areas of the project’s activities, with the active involvement of local stakeholders and the creation of a Community-Based Organisation that is now taking an active role in decision-making.

Conservation impact
Information not yet available.

Poverty reduction impact
In Hawf forest effective progress has been achieved as a result of the project, with the active involvement of local stakeholders and the creation of a Community-Based Organisation that is now taking an active role in decision-making. Community representatives felt that they now had a clear voice in the management of the protected area and the exploitation of the resources it contains.

Strategy for Conservation/Poverty Linkages
Enabling local participation in policy-/decision- making processes

Reference 1
http://www.gefweb.org/MonitoringandEvaluation/MEOngoingEvaluations/MEOLocalBenefits/Local_Benefits_Study_Yemen_Biodiversity_and_International_Waters.doc

Reference 2
http://gefonline.org/projectDetails.cfm?projID=665

 

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