USAID to Design New Latin America and Caribbean Regional
Environment Program
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
is pleased to announce the design phase of a new regional
biodiversity conservation program for Latin America and the
Caribbean (LAC). Following on the success of USAID's current
LAC regional environmental program, the new program will respond
to language in the FY 2006 Foreign Operations Appropriations
Bill recommending that USAID "design a successor to the *Parks
in Peril Program to develop self-sustaining national park
systems by improving economic opportunities for people living
near protected areas."
With a relatively modest level of annual funding, the new
regional program will need to be focused to be effective.
Consequently, the program will address the Congressional directive
and complement other USAID environmental investments by focusing
on the LAC region's increasingly threatened, globally important
coastal and marine biodiversity and related ecosystem services.
As the first step in the design process, USAID has contracted
a technical consulting firm that will be conducting interviews
and providing analysis to USAID in the form of an Opportunities
Assessment. Once the assessment is complete, it will be posted
on the USAID LAC Environment web page and will serve as one
input into the design process, along with additional internal
and external consultation and other reviews and studies. It
is USAID's policy to award all grants and cooperative agreements
competitively in order to allow for broad stakeholder input
and the selection of the best possible activities to achieve
program objectives. The Agency anticipates initiating a competitive
procurement for the new regional environment program in early
spring 2007.
*NOTE
The Parks in Peril Program, the largest
site-based conservation program in Latin America, is a partnership
among USAID, The Nature Conservancy, and in-country civil
society organizations in 16 countries. Over the past 16 years,
Parks in Peril has dramatically improved the conservation
status of 45 protected areas covering over 45 million acres
in Latin America and the Caribbean. USAID funding of Parks
in Peril will end in 2007. Additional information about the
program is available at www.ParksinPeril.org.
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