Protected Areas Fund (FANP)


FANP supports Mexico’s protected areas

The Project

The Protected Areas Fund (FANP, acronym in Spanish) aims to support the efficient use of financial resources channeled to Mexico’s protected areas (PAs) to strengthen their operation and management and ensure the long-term conservation of representative ecosystems.

Context

Created in 1997, FANP is a public-private collaboration scheme between FMCN and the National Commission of Protected Areas (CONANP, acronym in Spanish), in which FMCN is in charge of the financial management of economic resources and supervises their use in 53 federal PAs administered by CONANP, which ensures that the economic resources are used for strategic conservation activities in the territory. FANP finances strategic activities such as biological monitoring, restoration of degraded areas, community vigilance, fire management, productive projects, ecotourism, and capacity building.

Since 2012, FANP has promoted the Protected Areas Learning Community (Comunidad de Aprendizaje de Áreas Naturales – CAAP, acronym in Spanish), a network made up of PA managers and local organizations in which the capacities of its members are strengthened through the exchange of experiences, to improve performance in their different areas of work. CAAP operates through the participation of more than 4,000 followers on its Facebook page; the publication of a quarterly electronic bulletin; biennial face-to-face meetings with directors of PAs that have FANP resources; and through open calls for proposals that finance the exchange of experiences every two years.

In 2022, FANP celebrated 25 years of operation as one of the most successful financial mechanisms and an example in other parts of the world for the financing and operation of priority PAs.


The lines of work that guide FANP’s actions are:

  1. Strengthening the National System of Protected Areas through initiatives at a national level to improve the management effectiveness in federal PAs.
  2. Strengthening the operation of 55 federal PAs through financing Annual Operational Plans, aligned with five-year strategic planning and focused on field management activities.
  3. Immediate attention to extraordinary environmental contingencies in 55 priority federal PAs that, by their nature, urgently and immediately affect the health of an ecosystem, species, or human life.

Since 2012, FANP has promoted the Protected Areas Learning Community (CAAP).

Learn more about CAAP

Achievements

In 2022, the FANP celebrated 25 years of operation as a successful financial mechanism contributing to priority ecosystems' conservation and permanence. Thanks to the collaboration of CONANP, communities, local organizations, and the trust of more than 23 donors who have joined this initiative since 1997. FANP is an exemplary mechanism at the national and international levels. In 2022, in addition to celebrating the success of this mechanism, we celebrated the collaboration between the government and the organizations and the work of the park rangers who, together with the communities that inhabit the PAs, guard and conserve the natural resources that allow us Mexicans to enjoy environmental services.

Twenty-five years after its inception, the FANP channels strategic financial resources to 55 federal PAs covering 36.18 million hectares, which represents 54% of the protected land territory and 35% of the protected marine territory.

In 2022, we launched the CAAP call for proposals, receiving 30 proposals from 25 different organizations to strengthen PA staff and local communities in ecosystem management and monitoring and sustainable tourism through exchanges of experiences. The FANP Technical Committee approved eight proposals to be implemented during 2023.

In 2022, two more PAs were added to this financial mechanism as part of the Sustainable Financing Protected Areas Project, Phase II (FINANP II). In addition, in the second half of the year, we updated the strategic plans for the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán, La Sepultura, Ría Lagartos, and Islas Marías Biosphere Reserves (BR). Finally, in November, we celebrated 25 years of FANP operation in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán BR. We shared this celebration with more than 150 people from 38 of the 55 PAs supported by this financial mechanism, Conanp staff, four organizations, and more than ten local producer groups, who gathered at the Helia Bravo Hollis Botanical Garden in Zapotitlán Salinas, Puebla. Finally, in 2022, support was provided to combat and control 18 fires in seven PAs through the Emergency Fund, an extraordinary resource for contingencies in PAs supported by the FANP.

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Allies

Donors:
  • Braskem Idesa, S.A.P.I.
  • Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas
  • Conservation International México
  • FIHSIN
  • Ford Foundation
  • Fundación Gonzalo Río Arronte, I.A.P.
  • Global Environment Facility
  • Government of the State of Mexico
  • Government of the State of Michoacan
  • Grupo Materias Primas
  • International Community Foundation
  • KfW Development Bank
  • Marisla Foundation
  • National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
  • Resources Legacy Fund
  • Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales
  • The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
  • The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust
  • The Summit Foundation
  • U.S. Agency for International Development
  • United Nations Development Programme
  • Wick Communications
  • World Bank

Partners:

  • Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas
  • Espacios Naturales y Desarrollo Sustentable, A. C.
  • Fondo de Conservación del Eje Neovolcánico, A. C.
  • Fondo de Conservación El Triunfo, A. C.
  • Fondo Golfo de México, A. C.
  • Fonnor, A. C.
  • Pronatura Península de Yucatán, A. C.

Follow CAAP on Facebook: @caapmexico