MEx30x30


Conserving Mexican biodiversity through communities and their protected areas

The Project

The project MEx30x30 aims to help Mexico advance toward the Global Biodiversity Framework 30x30 target through long-term sustainable financing for the existing national protected areas. This objective is aligned with the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) as well as Mexico's National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (ENBioMex).

Context

Financed by the GBFF through the Global Environment Fund (GEF), with Conservation International (CI) as the implementing agency, the project will be conducted from 2025 to 2030 by FMCN. The National Commission of Protected Areas (CONANP, acronym in Spanish) will participate as government partner. This is the first GBFF project executed and will be transformative by improving the efficiency of all the existing  protected areas (PA) by catalyzing substantial progress towards Mexico’s 30x30 target and putting in place the financial and institutional foundation for Mexico to reach this target and then ensure robust management of the 30% of the country under conservation.

The lines of work that guide MEx30x30’s actions are:

  1. Component 1. Strengthening CONANP to increase its budget and manage PAs and areas voluntarily destined for conservation (ADVC, acronym in Spanish) effectively. This component will technically and financially support CONANP in closing its financial gap for existing federal protected areas through a variety of revenue streams, including federal appropriations, entrance and users’ fees, payment for ecosystem services, and compensations.
  2. Component 2. Mobilizing funding to cover the financial gap in PAs while the public funding reaches its target. This component will promote the design and deployment of a long-term financing mechanism following the Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) approach, including a transition fund to cover the funding gap while CONANP develops its revenue streams (Component 1) to increase public funding.
  3. Component 3. Strengthening recently established PAs, and ADVCs managed by indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC), to conserve, restore and sustainably manage territories. This component will focus on the establishment of an endowment to ensure permanent funding for areas under conservation - three recently decreed PAs, two PAs decreed prior to the present administration, and one complex of eight ADVCs recently established in the Chimalapas region of Oaxaca, an area with the highest biodiversity levels in all of Mexico. Specific PAs and ADVCs are located in five indigenous regions. These areas were selected by CONANP for their biological importance, presence of IPLCs, degraded areas eligible for restoration, regional and ecosystem diversity, and a mix of new and existing PAs.
  4. Component 4. Knowledge management, monitoring and evaluation for scaling-up impact. This component will entail close coordination between FMCN, CONANP, the donor community and IPLCs to ensure that project activities and results are properly monitored and evaluated, and that knowledge management facilitates the efficient sharing of information at every level of the project.

MEx30x30 will support Mexico in conserving 30% of its territory by 2030 through sustainable long-term financing for existing protected areas.

Achievements

The MEx30x30 project was approved by the GBFF Council on June 19th, 2024. Its implementation is expected to begin in 2025.
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Allies

Donors: 
  • Global Environment Fund 
Partners: 
  • Ministry of Finance and Public Credit
  • Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources
  • National Commission of Natural Protected Areas
  • Conservation International-GEF Agency