Municipal conservation units constitute one of the pillars of strategies for the conservation of Cerrado biodiversity, playing a key role in connecting the natural landscape, protecting populations of native fauna and flora species, and maintaining essential environmental services for the population, such as water supply, moderation of heat waves, and providing spaces for leisure and recreation, to name just a few examples. At the same time, conservation units are increasingly located near urban environments, and the strong pressure of the urbanization process and the needs of the large urban population throughout the country amplify the challenges for reconciling biodiversity protection with the development of urban infrastructure and its social, economic, and environmental implications.

 To achieve this, it is essential to have qualified personnel in the creation and management of an integrated network of protected areas maintained by municipalities. This was the purpose of the course “Creation and Management of Municipal Urban Conservation Units in the Cerrado,” which took place from April 3rd to 6th in Goiânia, GO. The course addressed the conceptual, technical, and legal aspects that underpin the planning and implementation of municipal conservation units, based on an integrated vision of the territory and participatory management. The training also explored the main practical challenges of implementing municipal conservation units in urban and peri-urban contexts, with a view to the new agenda on biodiversity and sustainable cities. The course was attended by more than 30 professionals, including municipal and state managers, NGOs, independent professionals, and academics. ICLEI South America, following its path of nature-based development, promoted the participation of two of its member cities, Sorocaba and Goiânia, in the course. The training is a partnership between Ambiental 44 Informação e Projetos em Biodiversidade Ltda., MvB Consultores Associados Ltda., and the Image Processing and Geoprocessing Laboratory (LAPIG), linked to the Institute of Socio-environmental Studies (IESA) of the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), and is being taught by the urban and environmental architect Miguel von Behr, who holds a master's degree in urban and regional planning and has extensive experience in conservation units in various regions of Brazil.

The initiative has the support of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) and the International Institute of Education of Brazil (IEB), the National Association of Municipal Environmental Agencies (ANAMMA), the Goiana Association of Municipalities (AGM), the Municipal Environmental Agency of Goiânia, and the project “Protected Areas and other area-based conservation measures at the local government level”. This initiative, also known as “Local Protected Areas” (https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/69389.htmlThis project is a collaboration between the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment (MMA), the Colombian Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development (MADS), the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment (MAE), and the Peruvian Ministry of the Environment (MINAM). The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) supports the project through the International Climate Initiative (IKI). Implementation in the four countries is carried out by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Getting to know the Municipal Conservation Units

This course is part of the project “Evaluation and Strengthening of Municipal Conservation Units in the Cerrado,” which aims to assess the representativeness and importance of municipal conservation units for the protection of biodiversity and environmental services in the Cerrado. Given that conservation occurs at the local level, greater visibility of municipal conservation units can strengthen an official local protection agenda, highlighting and stimulating the development of capacities and financial resources to improve the effectiveness of the implementation of existing units, as well as encouraging the expansion of the area and number of protected spaces managed by municipalities.

O Project It is supported and funded by CEPF, a fund created to support biodiversity conservation actions and projects, especially those of civil society organizations, in regions of high biological importance worldwide. The Fund partners with international institutions – the French Development Agency, Conservation International, the European Union, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Government of Japan, and the World Bank. In Brazil, CEPF is implemented by the International Institute of Education of Brazil (IEB), a Brazilian institution dedicated to training and empowering people, as well as strengthening organizations in the areas of natural resource management, environmental and territorial management, and other sustainability-related topics. To learn more about CEPF Cerrado, visit: http://www.iieb.org.br/.

 *Written by Luiz Paulo Pinto, technician at CEPF Cerrado and member of the Brazil Working Group on Local Protected Areas