Equator Initiative: partnering to scale-up community-based conservation.

The Equator Initiative is a partnership that brings together the United Nations, civil society, businesses, Governments and communities to help develop the capacity and raise the profile of grass-roots efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. It focuses on the region between 23.5 degrees north and 23.5 degrees south of the Equator, as this zone holds the greatest concentrations of both human poverty and biological wealth.

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The Initiative is a partnership of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the Government of Canada, Conservation International, Fordham University, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the International Development Research Centre, The World Conservation Union (IUCN), The Nature Conservancy, the Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) and the United Nations Foundation, in collaboration with the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP).

Since 2002, the Initiative has implemented an innovative cross-cutting programme based on four pillars: Equator Prize, a prestigious international award that recognizes and honours outstanding local efforts and community initiatives to effectively reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity; Equator Dialogues, an innovative programme of dialogues, learning exchanges and meetings that celebrate local successes, share experiences and inform policies; Equator Knowledge, a comprehensive research and learning initiative dedicated to synthesizing lessons from local conservation and poverty reduction practices; and Equator Ventures, a unique investment programme focused on blended finance and capacity development for biodiversity enterprises.

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The Equator Prize was first awarded in 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, and has since drawn some 800 nominations from around the world and has received extensive international media coverage. Winners and finalists serve to represent examples of best practice in biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction and to champion local knowledge and community empowerment.

The Chibememe Earth Healing Association (CHIEHA) in Zimbabwe provides a good example of how the Equator Prize participants are often empowered to get involved in policy discussions. A 2004 finalist, CHIEHA has since been an integral partner of the Equator Initiative. The forests of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park serve as inspiration for its wide-ranging efforts, such as reforestation, watershed protection and conservation of traditional crops and seeds, to promote sustainable livelihoods and the conservation of local biodiversity. Since 1999, the Chibememe community has taken a pro-active stance and constantly sought dialogue with relevant ministries and organizations determined to make the community part of both policy development and implementation processes. The Equator Initiative gave CHIEHA the opportunity to present concerns and issues during the World Parks Congress in 2003 in Durban, South Africa, where CHIEHA established critical partnerships with local and national organizations, which became pivotal in future policy discussions with entities such as IUCN, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism's (MET) Parks and Wildlife Authority and many more.

Endorsement by the Equator Initiative created a willingness among relevant partners to help CHIEHA in lobbying for their concerns to be included in the National Environmental Policy and a wildlife-based land reform policy. The Association is also influencing access, benefit-sharing and biodiversity-related policies and programmes at the local, national and global levels. Moving forward, MET has agreed to collaborate with CHIEHA in the development of programmes to operationalize community-based access and benefit-sharing models, and has given its official commitment to bring the Chibememe and other communities into planning for the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), thus ensuring that local concerns are integrated into national development plans for the achievement of these goals.

Equator Dialogues delivers a multifaceted response to the challenges of information and knowledge exchange by bridging the local-global policy gap. Since inception, it has convened seven highly successful community dialogue spaces at international events, ranging from the 2002 WSSD to the 2005 World Summit. These unique spaces have physically brought together thousands of community leaders with other local innovators and key national and global policy makers. It has also sponsored a novel learning exchange programme that enabled community groups to share tangible best practices at the national and regional levels.

The Community Commons, a dialogue space organized by the Equator Initiative and its partners from 16 to 18 June 2005 at Fordham University in New York City, provided a strategic opportunity for grass-roots and indigenous communities from around the world to voice their visions, commitments and perspectives on the role of communities in achieving the MDGs. The event brought together community representatives from 44 countries and more than 150 participants, along with UN representatives, Governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and academic and media institutions. The dialogue provided a unique atmosphere in which to share and exchange best practices and local development experiences. It was organized around four main objectives: recognize local successes in achieving the MDGs; share local knowledge and learning among communities, NGOs and Governments; inform decision makers and policy processes; and develop the capacity of local leaders and communities in their efforts to achieve the MDGs.

During the dialogue, community participants worked together to produce a recommendations document that was presented at civil society hearings held the following week to provide input to the 2005 World Summit Outcome document, which were captured in the recently published book, New Strategies for Development: A Community Commons Dialogue for Meeting the Millennium Development Goals. In follow up to the Community Commons, delegates were invited to the informal interactive hearings of the General Assembly with NGOs, civil society organizations and the private sector (CSO hearings) on 23 and 24 June 2005. A first of its kind, this consultative process was a major opportunity for these organizations and community representatives to impact the World Summit--the largest-ever gathering of heads of State and Government to review progress towards achieving the MDGs.

In preparation for the hearings, Community Commons delegates drafted the Community Voices Declaration, a significant portion of which was incorporated verbatim into the final unedited Summary of Hearings. It declares that the United Nations, including the General Assembly, needs to strengthen the participation of civil society and better acknowledge the importance of environmental sustainability, including consumption and production patterns. Based on the recommendations from the CSO hearings summary document, a new text was added to the Summit Outcome document. The dialogue space demonstrated that communities, often working in partnership with local governments, NGOs and international organizations, are fundamental to achieving the MDGs and make unique and essential contributions towards this global effort.

Equator Knowledge, launched at the inception of the Equator Initiative, promotes the sharing of knowledge and best practices, and seeks to deepen local impact and inform and influence policy. Its portfolio delivers a quarterly "Between the Lines" newsletter, manages a network of over 760 community initiatives and produces a comprehensive series of research papers, book chapters and other publications focusing on local approaches towards poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation. Equator Knowledge also focuses on ensuring that Equator Prize finalists receive exposure and media attention. Working with TVE, the Initiative was successful in having all the finalists for the 2002 Equator Prize featured in the BBC Earth Report series, reaching over 500 million households worldwide. Most recently, three Equator Prize winners were featured in the World Resources Institute's report, World Resources 2005--The Wealth of the Poor: Managing Ecosystems to Fight Poverty. By ensuring that the Initiative's activities and partnerships are well publicized, Equator Knowledge mainstreams biodiversity conservation into the public consciousness and enables the communities to forge new partnerships and expand their work.

In partnership with UNDP and the International Institute for Environment and Development, the Equator Initiative was a collaborator in the publication of a three-part series on achieving the MDGs and contributed to research on scaling up community successes in the conservation of biodiversity and the reduction of poverty. It also works with the University of Manitoba, through its partnership with the International Development Research Centre, to produce in-depth research on evaluating community-level poverty environment linkages and establish a methodology for best practice in community-based poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation. In addition, the Initiative contributes to and is featured in numerous publications on conservation, poverty reduction and partnerships within the UN system.

Equator Ventures, in partnership with Conservation International, delivers an innovative development and investment initiative, capitalized by grants and loans from resources in the public and private sectors. Its mission is to provide a "blended" offer of debt finance and enterprise development support to viable small- and medium-sized biodiversity businesses that contribute to biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction. Equator Ventures is tailored to address the incremental risk associated with small- and medium-enterprise projects (SMEs) by integrating loans and capacity-development grants. By helping to develop good business practices and solid credit histories, it demonstrates that these SMEs are good investments and capable of attracting new sources of financing for the SME market. Clients are drawn from conservation enterprises, which may be found in traditional sectors, such as agroforestry, ecotourism, ecosystem services or non-timber forest products, that deliver demonstrable conservation and socio-economic benefits.

The Equator Initiative continues to expand and deepen as a partnership. Two very exciting undertakings are on the horizon: the third Equator Prize, to be launched in January 2006, and the hosting of the Community Taba in March 2006 at the 8th Conference of the Parties (COP8) to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Curitiba, Brazil. The Equator Prize will give five $30,000 awards to community-based initiatives that demonstrate excellence in the reduction of poverty and the conservation of biodiversity: one prize in each region along the equatorial belt (Africa, Latin America and Asia); one to an initiative working in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's World Heritage site; and another to an initiative that demonstrates excellence in eco-entrepreneurship. Community Taba will be a central gathering for community representatives and civil society at COP8, dedicated to creating opportunities to highlight stories of grass-roots sustainable development victories and challenges faced by community-led action around the world, as well as to encourage peer-to-peer learning and establish a common platform for community participation in the negotiations at the COP.

(For further information, please contact [e-mail] or visit www.undp.org/equatorinitiative)

Sean Southey is Manager of the Equator Initiative, to which he contributes his experience in environmental governance issues, programme management and partnership-building. He is also Manager of the UNDP Capacity Development Group, guiding its work on sharing best practices and codifying knowledge.

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This is part of a series of articles exploring the many facets of partnerships supported by the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP). In the series, some of the UN private sector and foundation partners will convey their views on how partnerships with the United Nations are being built and are achieving impact on the ground.