The Environmental Law Institute® has been awarded generous grants in support of new and continuing projects in Africa. For more than three years, the Institute’s Africa Program has promoted sound environmental law, policy, and management throughout the continent, with a specific emphasis on empowering civil society involvement in decision-making.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded ELI $270,000 for a three-year project to conserve biodiversity in the Albertine Rift. Straddling the five nations of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Tanzania, the Albertine Rift is world-renowned for its biodiversity. However, deforestation and an array of other threats jeopardize this rich legacy. ELI and its in-country partners, which include Greenwatch in Uganda and the Lawyers Environmental Action Team (LEAT) in Tanzania, will work closely with the Makerere University Faculty of Law in Uganda to build local institutional capacity and strengthen legal frameworks for regional conservation. This work will include advanced judicial educational activities in Uganda and a program to strengthen laws and the capacity of institutions in the Rift countries to protect biological resources through effective systems governing access to genetic resources and benefit sharing. These activities will build on an existing ELI project, supported by a recent $200,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, to develop a handbook analyzing legal, policy, and institutional systems that govern access to genetic resources and benefit sharing in Africa.
Another $50,000 grant awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation supports ELI and its African partner, Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme (BDCP), in a new project to protect biodiversity in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Oil and gas extraction activities and consequent development pose threats to the area’s natural resources and rich biodiversity. Often the damage to natural resources that lie outside of modern channels of commerce is undervalued by decision-makers. ELI and its partner will develop and advance recommendations to improve the legal framework in Nigeria for valuing natural resources, with a particular emphasis on species and ecosystem components that are essential to the survival and well-being of local communities.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to helping foster lasting improvement in the human condition. The Rockefeller Foundation is committed to enriching and sustaining the lives and livelihoods of poor and excluded people throughout the world.
For more information about the Africa Program or ELI, please contact Program Co-Director Carl Bruch at (202) 939-3240 or visit our website at http://www.eli.org.