The North Africa Biodiversity Programme

With the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), IUCN has been engaged since 1994 in a programme aimed at promoting the conservation of biodiversity in North Africa, developing the sustainable use of natural resources and empowering local communities, in particular women, in biodiversity conservation. It is being carried out by IUCN State and NGO Members in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia.

The North Africa Biodiversity Programme, which aimed at promoting the emergence of a network of institutions in the region, has been one of the first regional environmental initiatives in North Africa. It has several important results:

• Initiating regional processes between the five countries involved that encouraged coordination and exchange of knowledge. This is highlighted by the creation of a regional network of experts and the numerous publications funded under the Programme;
  
  
• Testing conservation and related income generating activities in the field that now offer a strong potential for larger scale implementation and, in certain cases, dissemination and replication into other countries of the region;
  
  
• Creating regional dialogue among the different countries in the region and outreaching to other national partners;

For further information on the different phases of the North Africa Biodiversity Programme, please check the documents section of this website.