Addressing Outstanding Barriers and Leveraging Durable Financial Mechanisms to Achieve Target 3 in Gabon

Gabon is the world’s 2^nd most forested country, harboring rich biodiversity. Insufficient long-term protected area (PA) financing and reduced public support for PAs due to the impacts of human wildlife conflict (HWC) are two key barriers to achieving Target 3. The GEF-7 Enduring Earth (“EE”) project (GEF ID 11014) is developing a Project Finance for Permanence (“PFP”) in Gabon to secure long-term PA funding. Reducing HWC is a top priority for the Government of Gabon (GoG), and this GBFF project will integrate HWC management into the PFP to remove key barriers to achieving Target 3.

Almost all communities living in or near Gabon’s PAs experience HWC, eroding Indigenous Peoples and Local Community (IPLC) support for PAs. New PAs or the extension of existing PAs may exacerbate HWC and increase distress in communities. This GBFF project will help deliver Target 3 by developing a national HWC strategy and integrating HWC into the Gabon PFP (Component 1) and supporting IPLC-designed HWC action and coexistence approaches in four PAs (Component 2). TNC will co-deliver the project with the GEF-7 EE project and incorporate HWC management into the PFP’s conservation and finance plans, and implementing mechanisms (the PFP Conservation Trust Fund), to ensure funding flows to this important issue.