| WASHINGTON, DC, November 8, 2013—The Global Environment Facility’s governing Council approved a $238 million for global environmental projects, including funding for a ground-breaking project to protect Russia’s big cats.
The international gathering this week was highlighted by the announcement that the United States has signed and ratified the Minamata Convention on Mercury, becoming the first country committed to the newest environmental convention eligible to receive GEF funding. U.S. Delegate Judith Garber informed the Council as it approved a $238 million work program. The work program roster, supporting 41 projects in 69 recipient countries, includes a $12.7 million grant through World Wildlife Fund-US (WWF-US) to conserve unique landscapes and ecosystems in the Russian Far East, Altai-Sayan, and North Caucasus regions critical to the endangered Amur tiger, snow leopard, Far Eastern leopard, and Persian leopard. The Council met in the wake of international environmental conferences that affirmed GEF’s role in financing land degradation projects and the new Minamata Convention, and on the eve of the international climate change conference in Poland, another of the international environmental conventions supported by the GEF. “I believe all these events indicate the continued strong demand for GEF as an important player in the global environment, now and in the future,” GEF CEO and Chairperson Naoko Ishii told the Council. Noting GEF’s efforts to improve efficiency and speed the project cycle, and longer-term plans to focus on the drivers of global environmental degradation, Ishii said, “As GEF grows—with new agencies and new convention obligations—we need to constantly look out for ways to improve and strengthen our partnership for higher impacts.” |
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