PART B.2: Incremental Cost Assessment

Project background

188. 
     Brazil’s National Biodiversity Policy identifies conservation through protected areas (PA) as central to protecting the country’s megadiversity and has, therefore, established a goal to have 10% of each of Brazil’s 6 biomes included in PAs. The current National System of Conservation Units (SNUC) covers approximately 12% of the territory and consists of 2 broad groups: those uninhabited PAs in which no use of biodiversity is allowed so as to provide strict protection; and inhabited PAs that focus on sustainable-use of biodiversity as a means of conservation and to protect the communities dwelling in them. The SNUC system, however, does not achieve adequate protection for all forest biomes nor does it include many sites defined as high priority for forest conservation. While further growth of the SNUC will continue, land-tenure and financial constraints impede expansion to levels that meet bio-geographical coverage targets. Other types of PAs will be needed.
     
189. 
     To this end, Brazil’s Indigenous Lands (ILs) represent a significant opportunity. They promote the physical and cultural safety of indigenous people (IPs) - often referred to as ecosystem or forest people - and consequently, through indigenous traditional natural resource management strategies and cultural beliefs, these lands protect forest biodiversity and the services provided by these ecosystems. ILs cover as much, if not more area, than the current SNUC system, and many contain forests identified as priority for conservation. Brazil’s 560 ILs represent 69% of PA in the Amazon; 58% in the Cerrado; 29% in the Caatinga, 15% in the Mata Atlântica. PROBIO identified 3 priorities in the Amazon and ILs constitute 40% of Areas of Extreme Importance, 36% of Very Great Importance, and 25% of Great Importance. Others are strategically located in sites critical for connectivity between PAs within SNUC, or for inter-biome transition zones.
     
190. 
     However, given external and internal pressures on ILs, the ability of IPs to continue their traditional, cost-effective conservation strategies is being compromised. Brazil has, therefore, requested GEF assistance through UNDP to catalyze and consolidate the contributions of ILs as essential areas for the conservation of biological and cultural diversity in Brazil’s forest biomes.
     

191. 
     Under the baseline scenario, government support to indigenous peoples will largely focus on socio-economic issues. In spite of the contribution of ILs and IPs to biodiversity conservation, they are unlikely to receive adequate, financial, technical, and institutional support. Further, the situation among ILs varies greatly such that some ILs may be able to continue to fulfill their conservation potential, while others will not. The opportunities for expanding protected area coverage in all of Brazil’s forest biomes, including areas identifies as priorities for conservation, and maintaining connectivity between existing protected areas could be lost. Under the baseline, there are some interventions seeking to address some of these issues but they lack a systematic, comprehensive approach to consolidating ILs as PAs, and most importantly through a process in which IPs are equal partners. Over the next 5 years, support to IPs and ILs can be summarized as follows:
     
192. 
     Enabling environment: The Amazon biome has benefited from the PPTAL project (executed by FUNAI and financed by the World Bank and KfW) that allocated resources for the conservation of the natural resources of indigenous lands through participatory demarcation of the lands by indigenous institutions. However, this project, which started in 1995, came to a close in 2008. A second phase is under negotiation but information on likely availability of resources is not yet available. Nevertheless, the GEF Indigenous Project will take advantage of the accumulated knowledge produced by PPTAL relating to monitoring and land protection of ILs. Lessons from PPTAL will be incorporated into Outcome 1. The Amazon biome will also benefit from PDPI (executed by FUNAI) which is another program that will allocate some resources under the baseline to strengthening policies related to ILs (approximately USD 887,349.19 over the 2008-2012 funding cycle). In addition, some resources will be available from the CGPIMA/ MMA (executed by FUNAI) activities requiring public works and enterprises that may have an adverse impact on indigenous lands to provide compensation for this allocating environmental compensation. Over the funding cycle of 2008-2012 approximately USD 2,875,590.99 can be expected to be realized and allocated to strengthening the enabling environment for affected ILs.
     
193. 
     Ethno-environmental management within ILs: Over the 2008-2012 funding cycle, some resources will be available for ethno-environmental management from PDPI (USD 443,674.50) and CGPIMA/ MMA (USD 6,709,712.31) of which the former will be restricted to the Amazon while the latter will have national coverage.
     
194. 
     Sustainable use within ILs: the PDPI will dedicate some resources to promoting sustainable use within ILs in the Amazon (USD 443,674.50). In addition, resources will also be available for all ILs in all biomes from the Indigenous Portfolio of the federal government which supports projects on food and nutritional safety and sustainable development of indigenous communities, respecting the communities’ autonomy and their cultural identities (USD 508,984.30). Finally, CGDC/ FUNAI, another program of the federal government that is national in scope, will dedicate USD 8 million for developing sustainable management focusing on: food and nutritional safety and income generation; food security and gender issues; technical support for the accomplishment of participative diagnoses, for the elaboration, implementation, monitoring and assessment of productive processes that use traditional/sustainable practices; implementation and maintenance of infrastructure for the production and marketing of indigenous products; certification of indigenous products.
     

195. 
     While the Brazilian government has provided a strong legislative basis for recognizing the rights of IPs to Indigenous Lands and also undertaken several programs and projects of support, there remain challenges to fully realizing the conservation potential of ILs. Global benefits currently delivered by ILs will be eroded overtime as external pressures on ILs increase. Encroachment into ILs will affect traditional resource strategies. Continued capacity barriers will limit the economic return that IPs derive from their resources use strategies leading to adoption of more aggressive extraction practices within boundaries and the spiraling loss of traditional knowledge leading to further degradation of forest habitats. A significant opportunity to maximize and sustain IPs conservation of forest biodiversity will be lost along with irreparable losses in ethno-cultural and spiritual diversity.
     
196. 
     Therefore, the proposed Alternative is to adopt a strategy for environmental management in ILs by IPs that is tested in Reference Areas for the effective conservation of a representative sample of forest ecosystems in Brazil. The Project will achieve this through the following three Outcomes and their related Outputs:
     
     • 
       Outcome 1: Mechanisms and tools have been developed that enable Brazil’s ILs to be recognized and strengthened as effective areas for conserving forest biodiversity, natural resources and environmental services
       
     • 
       Outcome 2: A network of ILs modeling environmental management practices for conservation in different forest biomes is in place and is being effectively managed by the indigenous peoples and organizations
       
     • 
       Outcome 3: Sustainable and replicable models of forest management, based on ethno-management principles, are piloted in Reference Areas from different forest biomes
       
197. 
     Direct global benefits would be delivered by the project in the short term in the pilot sites. Action at the systemic level would lay the foundations for up-scaling and replication and inform policy changes, thus, indirectly, and in the long term, delivering increased global benefits in ILs that cover 99 million ha of largely forest ecosystems of highest priority for biodiversity conservation. To realize the Alternative strategy and associated global environmental benefits, the Government of Brazil is requesting funding from the GEF and has also mobilized cofinancing from the following sources: Indigenous Portfolio (MMA), PDPI (MMA), SBF (Secretariat for Biodiversity, MMA), FUNAI and The Nature Conservancy. The table below summarizes, by project outcome, the baseline, alternative and incremental costs (with the latter being shared by GEF and cofinanciers).