THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY AND BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION - LESSONS TO DATE AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE ACTION

The last five years in particular have seen increasing attention paid to biodiversity. This culminated at the Earth Summit last June with th e completion of Agenda 21 and a major international Convention on Biol ogical Diversity, a document signed by some 165 nations. Concurrent wi th the Convention negotiations was the development of a global fund fo r biodiversity conservation and other environmental priorities, the Gl obal Environment Facility (GEF). The GEF is the largest fund to date p ut forward by the international community to address biodiversity loss , but, so far, it has failed to set adequate priorities for biodiversi ty conservation. It has also yet to recognize the full range of biodiv ersity values and uses and, in general, GEF projects have not taken ad vantage of existing non-governmental capacity for biodiversity conserv ation. 1993 is a critical year for the GEF, one in which the GEF can b ecome a critical element of global efforts to conserve biodiversity or remain an important initiative that realized only a fraction of its p otential.