The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) approved 1 million USD to finance an innovative project titled “Improving the Financial Sustainability of Protected Areas” that will look into finding new financial mechanism to leverage additional funding of the protected areas in the Romanian part of Carpathians.

The project will be implemented during 2010-2014 in partnership with WWF and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development through Romsilva (National Forest Administration), reinforcing thus the excellent cooperation that UNDP has with the Government in carrying out its environmental initiatives.

The project is building upon successful current UNDP environment initiatives in two protected areas : Maramures Nature Park and Macin National Park and on two capacity building projects through which UNDP is assisting the Romanian government in the implementation of the international environmental conventions’ provisions.

The recently adopted Protected Area Law of Romania identifies a series of financial mechanisms for protected areas, which this project will be testing. Moreover, the proposed project is fully in line with the commitment of Romania and other Carpathian countries to address the main articles of the Carpathian Convention. In 2003 all the range states signed a Framework Convention on the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians (the Carpathian Convention), which was subsequently ratified by all seven signatory countries (including Romania) and entered into force on December 11, 2006.

UNDP will assist Romania to keep its commitment that was made at the first Conference of the Parties to the Carpathian Convention (December 2006) to use its potential GEF national allocation for the development and implementation of a project that addresses the issue of financial sustainability of the Romanian Carpathian protected areas, and to lay the ground for replicating the approach to the entire Carpathian Network of Protected Areas.

The project will be a groundbreaking initiative in Romania that will aim to elevate the understanding of society with respect to protected areas and the economics behind the biodiversity conservation efforts.