The Inter-American Development Bank and the Global Environment Facility Partnership

Fostering Global Environmental Benefits in Latin America and the Caribbean

The IDB, the main source of multilateral financing and expertise for sustainable economic, social, and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean, joined the GEF as an executing agency in 2004. Established in 1991, the GEF is the largest funder of projects to improve the global environment, providing grants to developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

Together, the IDB and the GEF contribute to achieving GEF objectives in Latin America and the Caribbean in thematic focal areas, including biodiversity, climate change, international waters, and land degradation.

During 2009–2010, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has helped its member countries develop and secure a pipeline of Global Environment Facility (GEF) projects that amounts to over US$ 70million, leveraging over four times that amount in public and private sector financing.

The IDB contributes to mainstreaming GEF financing in areas including agriculture, energy, tourism, water and

sanitation, and transportation, among others.

BiodiversityThe IDB’s partnership with the GEF has been particularly important for supporting the mainstreaming of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management into social and development objectives:

• Central America— Integrated Management of Ecosystems in Indigenous Communities: mainstreaming traditional knowledge into sound agricultural practices and regional ecosystem management among indigenous communities

• Colombia— Protection of Biodiversity in the Southwestern Caribbean Sea: promoting highly participatory management of marine protected areas involving traditional island communities as key stakeholders and beneficiaries

• Costa Rica— Marine and Coastal Resources Management in Puntarenas: improving environmental sustainability standards for tourism and artisanal fisheries

• Guatemala— Management of the Maya Biosphere Reserve: enhancing the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity by strengthening institutional and stakeholder capacities within protected areas

• Honduras— Consolidation of Ecosystem Management and Biodiversity Conservation of the Bay Islands: strengthening self-sustaining institutional frameworks to support ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation

Climate Change and Energy

IDB-GEF financing is providing access to incentive-based mechanisms to promote climate change mitigation and increase options for carbon financing:

• Barbados and The Bahamas— leveraging funding resources to connect solar photovoltaic panels to the energy grid, in one of the first solar distributed generation projects in the Caribbean

• Brazil— involving the private sector in developing markets for financing energy efficiency investments for buildings (in partnership with the UNDP)

• Chile— sponsoring the development of solar appliances for power generation and solar heating through GEF technology transfer funds; supporting guarantee funds to foster markets for energy efficiency services

• Colombia— creating market-based mechanisms for greenhouse gas offsets to support corporate carbon mitigation strategies

• Haiti— promoting the use of solar power generation for hospitals and refugee camps after the January 2010 earthquake

• Mexico— building and assembling the country’s first 1.2 megawatt wind turbine through GEF technology transfer funds

• Nicaragua— a multifocal approach to fostering sustainable energy sources through the protection and management of ecosystems and watersheds

Through the IDB’s and GEF’s efforts in this focal area, more than US$150 million has been leveraged and more than 23 million tons of CO2 equivalent will be reduced.

International Waters

The IDB, in partnership with the GEF, is advancing innovative approaches for pollution mitigation and water resources conservation:

• Environmental Protection and Maritime Transport Pollution Control Project in the Gulf of Honduras— improving prevention of pollution from maritime transport in ports and navigation lanes and from land-based sources in Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras

• Prototype Caribbean Regional Fund for Wastewater Management— controlling the discharge of untreated sewage by using innovative financing approaches to develop and finance wastewater projects and advancing relevant policy reforms (project in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme)

• Regional Platform for Water Resource Management— deploying public-private funding mechanisms to promote private sector participation and leadership in the conservation of freshwater ecosystems (project supported by the GEF Earth Fund)

www.iadb.org/gef

Inter-American Development Bank1300 New York Avenue N.W.

Washington D.C. 20577

For further information or questions please contact: Ricardo Quiroga | Executive GEF Coordinator | ricardoq@iadb.org | 1.202.623.3159

Marisil Naborre | Fiduciary Focal Point | marisiln@iadb.org | 1.202.623.1316