BCN Program Description - October 1996

Background: In the early 1990s, staff at the Biodiversity Support Program and their USAID colleagues identified three factors affecting biodiversity conservation efforts. First, was the observation that many integrated conservation and development projects being implemented in areas of high biodiversity were not likely to succeed because they lacked a link between some of the economic activities proposed and the need to conserve biodiversity. Second, was the increased interest in consumer markets for "rainforest products." The presumption was if products from biologically diverse areas had a recognized value in the marketplace, people living in and around the ecosystems would conserve biodiversity in order to capture some of these economic benefits over the long-term. Finally, it was observed that even though many projects promoting economic activities in areas of high biodiversity claimed to be sustainable, no one was certain of the long-term biological, social, or economic impacts of these projects were on the biodiversity of an area and the local and indigenous people living and working there. An opportunity to evaluate enterprise-based approaches to address these issues was presented by the creation of the United States-Asia Environmental Partnership (US-AEP) program. As a result, the Biodiversity Conservation Network for the Asia and Pacific Regions was initiated.

Program Overview: The Biodiversity Conservation Network (BCN) was established to 1) support site-specific efforts to conserve biodiversity at a number of sites across Asia and the Pacific and 2) evaluate the effectiveness of enterprise-oriented approaches to community-based biodiversity conservation. To achieve these goals, BCN brings together organizations in Asia, the Pacific, and the United States in active partnerships with local and indigenous communities. The Network provides grants for projects that encourage the development of enterprises that are dependent on sustained conservation of local biodiversity. Projects supported by BCN grants must monitor the social, economic, and biological impacts of this enterprise-oriented approach to community-based conservation. A key outcome of BCN's efforts, in addition to supporting site-specific conservation programs, will be providing information to policy makers, the donor community, and environmental and development organizations about the conditions under which these enterprise-based approaches can contribute to biodiversity conservation.

Approach: BCN awarded two types of grants through a rigorous, competitive process: Planning Grants and Implementation Grants. The Planning Grants, feasibility study funds, were awarded up until April 1994 to offset the costs of project design. Three-year Implementation Grants were awarded to those groups whose projects met BCN's requirements for potential enterprise viability and the development of monitoring plans to assess the biological, social, and economic impacts of the enterprises.

Organization and Funding: Biodiversity Conservation Network is a 20-million dollar, 6.5-year program initiated in late 1992 with funding from the US-AEP, which is led by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under cooperative agreement number AEP-0015-A-00-2043-00. The BCN is a USAID attribution to the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The program is part of the Biodiversity Support Program (BSP), which is implemented by a consortium of World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and World Resources Institute. BSP works to conserve biological diversity in developing countries by supporting innovative, on-the-ground projects that integrate conservation with social and economic development, research and analysis of conservation and development techniques, and information exchange and outreach.

US-AEP is a coalition of Asia/Pacific and American businesses, community groups and governmental institutions. The coalition enhances environmental protection and promotes sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific by mobilizing U.S. environmental technology, expertise, and financial resources. US-AEP is supported by a USAID program under the guidance of the inter-agency Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee. USAID's Office of Environment and Natural Resources, Center for the Environment, Bureau for Global Programs, Field Support, and Research now has management responsibility for BCN.

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