Darwin Initiative: 5th Report
Chapter 1
Introduction
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Darwin Initiative. Since its launch at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, this small grants programme has supported around 250 projects covering a wide range of subjects related to the conservation of biodiversity in over 80 countries around the world.
Projects funded under the Darwin Initiative help developing countries address their commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The Biodiversity Convention, which is also celebrating its 10th anniversary since being signed at the Rio Summit, was the first global agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. It has three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources. Over 180 of the world's governments have committed, in general terms, to undertaking national and international measures aimed at achieving these goals. Although the responsibility to implement the Convention lies with the individual countries, many of these countries suffer from a lack of financial resources and expertise that severely restricts practical action. The Darwin Initiative was developed in recognition of this problem and co-funds projects developed and implemented in partnership with these countries, relying on the wealth of relevant expertise available in the UK.
The Initiative is open to applications from UK institutes in partnership with organisations from countries that are rich in biodiversity but poor in resources, including the Overseas Territories of the United Kingdom. It funds projects focusing on a huge range of issues concerning the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, drawing on the UK's scientific, educational and commercial strengths in the field of biodiversity and a wide range of other disciplines to support this work. As well as the more popular subjects for study, there are many Darwin projects that focus on lower-profile species and habitats which, despite considerable ecological significance, may otherwise have little chance of attracting funding.
Objectives of the Darwin Initiative
The current Darwin objectives 1, providing the single framework within which projects will be considered, are:
- The Darwin Initiative will assist countries rich in biodiversity but poor in resources (including the Overseas Territories of the United Kingdom) with the conservation of biological diversity and implementation of the Biodiversity Convention. These countries will be those where work on conservation and the use of biodiversity would not be carried out without such funding. Funding will raise awareness of the potential worth of natural resources and use it in a sustainable way to help eliminate poverty in those countries.
- The Initiative will draw on UK expertise in the field of biodiversity. Such expertise is expected to be of at least postdoctoral quality.
- Projects funded under the Initiative will be collaborative, involving either local institutions or communities in the host country.
- Projects will have a real and lasting impact on the capacity of the recipient country to meet its obligations under the Biodiversity Convention.
- Projects will be of high quality and scientific excellence.
- Whenever possible, Darwin funding will be used as a catalyst to lever additional funding for project work, which might not otherwise be forthcoming.
- Projects funded under the Initiative will not cut across work being funded through other mainstream environmental or research programmes. The outputs and outcomes from projects should be additional.
- Projects should seek to be distinctive and innovative.
- Projects funded under the Initiative will demonstrate good value for money.
Darwin Projects
Selection of Projects
The Initiative is administered by Defra through the Darwin Initiative Secretariat. This is supported by an Advisory Committee which was set up to advise Ministers on the principles and objectives of the Initiative, taking into account the past experience of the grant programme; to make recommendations on the applications for Darwin funding support, taking into account the Darwin objectives and other relevant factors; to monitor the progress of the Darwin Initiative and to evaluate the achievement of its objectives.
Applications for Darwin funding are received in the annual open competition open to UK institutions, organisations and individuals with expertise in the biodiversity field, in disciplines that are biodiversity related or whose work may have impact on biodiversity. Applications are invited from the public and private sectors, and are submitted by October each year. Funding decisions are made within the following months in time for approved projects to commence the following April.
Around twenty to thirty five applications are successful each year from UK organisations ranging from the large biodiversity institutions such as the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Natural History Museum, through to specialist units within University Departments, to small NGO's. There is increasing emphasis on the importance of developing strong partnerships with the organisations in the host country, both locally and internationally, and strengthening their capacity to sustain and develop their work.
Applications are invited for funding to support projects in five principal areas: institutional capacity building, training, research, work to implement the Biodiversity Convention and environmental education or awareness. Many involve an integration of elements from each area. Applications are assessed within the framework set by the objectives identified above, and also against more specific criteria found in the application guidelines.
The tenth round of funding was announced in March 2002 and will support 26 new projects. These are listed in Annex 1.
Type and Distribution of Projects
From April 1993 to April 2001, over nine funding rounds, a total of 253 projects were approved for funding. Figure 1 illustrates the distribution of Darwin projects since 1993. Projects generally run for up to three years with Darwin funded costs of around £35,000 to £40,000 a year.
There are 147 of these projects in 72 countries currently underway or recently completed. This document reports on the monitoring and evaluation of these projects.
It is perhaps not surprising that about half of the projects funded so far have focused on countries within Africa and Asia that have considerable biodiversity and endemism and huge problems of loss of habitats and species. South America is another region that has attracted a large number of projects, for similar reasons. However, the large number of eligible countries and subjects gives rise to a wide distribution of projects in habitats throughout the world including the oceans.
Figure 1. Distribution of Darwin Initiative Projects by Region 1993 -2001
Monitoring and Evaluation
The Darwin Initiative is monitored and evaluated at both project and programme level. At project level, staff and local partners are expected to monitor and assess progress and outcomes in relation to project goals. Annual Reports, brief half-year summaries of progress, and Final Reports are required for all projects. Projects are only signed off on completion of these commitments. The Department contracts out the assessment of individual projects to independent consultants, who also assess whether the programme as a whole is achieving its objectives. The current contract for this work was awarded to The Edinburgh Centre for Tropical Forests (ECTF) in June 2000, who have provided the majority of monitoring & evaluation information presented in this report.
The Department also recently contracted ECTF to provide an overall evaluation of the achievements of the Darwin Initiative. A summary of the findings of the resulting report, 'Rio+10 Report', is presented in Appendix 2.
Further information on the Darwin Initiative and the CBD is available from the following websites:
- Darwin Initiative www.nbu.ac.uk/darwin
- Defra www.defra.gov.uk/environment/darwin/index.htm
- Convention on Biological Diversity www.biodiv.org
- UK CBD Clearing House Mechanism www.chm.org.uk
1 These objectives are being revised for the new Phase of the Darwin Initiative, to be launched at WSSD
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Page last modified 10 August, 2002