Guinea Bissau’s efforts investing in conservation and sustainable livelihood started in the early 1990s. The government developed a strategy to build a protected area network to conserve biodiversity. Many partners supported this vision such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Swiss government. In 2005, the World Bank and the European Commission established the Coastal and Biodiversity Management Project (GEF: $4.8 million; co-financing: $6.31 million) which consolidated management responsibility for protected areas in Guinea-Bissau under a single umbrella: the Institute for Biodiversity and Protected Areas (IBAP). The project also funded local initiatives to create environmentally friendly development programs in communities in and around the parks.
Thanks to example set by Guinea Bissau, local leaders now understand firsthand that there are huge economic as well as environmental benefits to conserving biodiversity. Economic development and biodiversity conservation need not be mutually exclusive, provided the development of a national strategy is a country driven process, with the coordinated support of donors and partners.
With the continuous support of the GEF and its partners, Guinea Bissau announced that they will go beyond the Nagoya-Aichi targets agreed over the last Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biodiversity, and will extend its network of protected areas currently from 15% to 24% by 2012.