Swaziland’s formal Protected Areas (PAs) cover approximately 4% of the country’s total land area, and are relatively rich in biodiversity with their share of endemism as represented in various ecosystems. Furthermore, the country has set targets for the conservation of its ecosystems and species in line with the National Development Strategy (Vision 2022) and other international targets such as the Aichi Targets under the auspices of the Convention on Biological Diversity. While some of the critical ecosystems and species are found in existing PAs, some are found in areas where there is prone to unstainable utilization and overexploitation of resources, thereby threatening livelihoods and impeding sustainable development.
The Strengthening National Protected Areas Systems (SNPAS) in Swaziland is a six years (2014-2020) Project funded by GEF aims at developing, expanding and effectively managing the capacities of Swaziland’s PAs network in order to adequately protect the biodiversity. This will be undertaken through the “landscapes” approach towards sustainable development and will involve integrated land and natural resource management that transforms the current PA patchwork into network and enhance vulnerable communities’ livelihoods, in particular those adjacent to the PAs.
The SNPAS Project has been organised around three components: (i) knowledge-based platform operationalised at the national, regional and community levels to address current and emerging threats to PAs and biodiversity conservation; (ii Expansion of PA network, and (iii) strengthening PA functioning through improved conservation management and operational support for existing and new PAs, including both formal and informal. PAs will be established and managed in critical biodiversity areas as clusters, integrating different sites that are managed by the Government of Swaziland (GoS), the private sector and local communities and enable a matrix of complemental land-use activities across board.
Swaziland, as a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), amongst other multilateral environmental agreements, is part of the global community with obligations to provide information for ecosystem management, PAs included. Knowledge on the country’s biodiversity is critical for the operationalisation of systematic biodiversity (conservation) planning, management and reporting which begins with evidence generation. This requires the identification of critical information on biodiversity and ecological support for maintenance of ecosystem processes and services. Furthermore, socio-economic information, including an understanding of streams of livelihoods, is critical interventions to inform income generation opportunities while addressing biodiversity conservation challenge, is pertinent.
In this regard, the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs (MTEA) seeks the technical services of a consortium or team of consultants consisting of a Biodiversity Specialist, Sustainable Financing Expert and a Sociologist to undertake an integrated assessment of the feasibility of sustainable biodiversity conservation investments in the country through PAs. This will also include an investigation on the socio-economic capacities and enabling socio-cultural options in existing PAs and adjacent communities, for both formal and informal settings.
Objective:
To collect data and information for the establishment and operation of GIS-based knowledge and information management systems for the ecological monitoring of PAs and the wider landscapes in the target areas of the SNPAS project. To conduct feasibility studies for sustainable financing for community and PA initiative.
Scope:
The assessment will encompass capturing of data (predominantly geo-referenced) on the country’s biodiversity and protected areas. This will be combined with an assessment sustainable financing and socio-economic analysis for both inter-and-intra PAs conditions. This data and information will then be used to inform systemic biodiversity conservation planning, identification of support areas and management and associated vulnerabilities stemming from climate change, land-use and socio-economic scenarios.
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