The Project

.

.

The UN Development Programme in Ukraine and the Global Environment Facility project “Strengthening governance and financial sustainability of the national protected area system in Ukraine”. 

The goal of the project is to secure long-term conservation of biodiversity within Ukraine’s Nature Reserve Fund, specifically focusing on PAs of global, national or regional significance. 

The objective of the project is to enhance the financial sustainability and strengthen institutional capacity of the PA system in Ukraine. The normative solution will be pursued through the systematic emplacement of ear marked revenue capture mechanisms to complement budgetary subventions to the PA system, and through improvements to PA governance that ensure PA revenue streams are employed efficiently so that impact is optimized per unit of investment. 

The project has been endorsed for four years. 

The total budget of the project is USD 5,866 mn 

The Project is financed by the Global Environmental Facility 

Implementing Agency 

The Implementing Agency of the Project is The UN Development Programme in Ukraine. The responsible person is Volkov Sergei, UNDP Senior Programme Manager 

Coordinator of the Project – Vasyl Tolkachov 

Executing Agency

The State Service for Protected Areas of the Ministry for Environmental Protection of Ukraine is the National Executing Agency of the Project.

National Director of the Project – Stetsenko Mykola, First Deputy Head  

Pilot sites 

The Project focuses on the whole PA system of Ukraine, which encompasses a diversity of landscapes. The Project is designed to cost-effectively improve the financial sustainability, as well as individual and institutional capacities within the national PA system of Ukraine.  

At the present-three PAs (Shatsk NNP, Pripyat-Stokhid NNP, Pripyat-Stokhid RLP) have been selected for the project’s validation pillar, due to the presence of globally significant biodiversity, and because they represent different management challenges (i.e. have different ecological, social and institutional landscapes) and are at different stages of development.

Main Outputs

.

Development and implementation of a strategic vision for PA financial sustainability

·         development of a comprehensive national strategy for PA financing;

·         introduction of business planning as a standard practice in PAs;

·         testing private-public sector partnerships as a model for maximizing and fairly sharing revenues from activities such as tourism, and engaging local people in conservation activities such as hay-cutting.

.

Improved governance of the national PA system

·         testing decentralized governance systems for PAs;

·         developing mechanisms to facilitate PA management across administrative;

·         providing for obligatory staff training in PA management;

·         establishing an association of PAs;

·         introducing a system to monitor management effectiveness as a feed-in to decision making processes.

.

Enhanced Capacity to replicate the improved management approach across the national PA system

·         creation of monitoring and evaluation system to track project impacts;

·         gaining experience and knowledge, replication of best practices and lessons learned in other PAs within the national system.

.

Expected results

.

• Complex national strategy for PA financing and Plan of Actions
• Business-plan of PA activities
• Private-public partnerships as a model of generating income in NPA
• Decentralized system of PA management
• Mechanisms to facilitate PA management across administrative
• Obligatory staff training in PA management
• Association of PAs
• System to monitor management effectiveness as a feed-in to decision making processes
• Monitoring and evaluation system to track project impacts