Training in financial planning for West African protected area managers

Implementation

Lamin, Gambia
Coyah, Guinea
Mamghar, Mauritania

December 2020 – October 2021

Official project name

Development of Business Plans for RAMPAO’s Marine Protected Areas

Affiliation project

PIMFAO – Small Initiatives and Financial Mechanisms for the Conservation of Marine and Coastal Biodiversity in West Africa

Financing

Coordinator(s)

Partner(s)

Project background

The funding gap of West African protected areas

Protected areas in West Africa help local communities develop to varied degrees in addition to providing a solution to ecological problems. The region’s protected areas must be properly staffed, have management resources tailored to the local environment, and have the best possible funding, according to the RAMPAO.

The MPAs are experiencing a persistent financial deficit in spite of the government’s attempts to at least partially pay salaries and the financial assistance of some technical and financial partners on a number of projects. They are having trouble paying for their ongoing management expenses, especially those related to minimum surveillance. The majority of the time, employees lack the fundamental abilities needed for technical and accounting management.

While some MPAs possess a management plan, none have a current business plan. Therefore, the local situation suggests a dual need: training MPA staff in the long-term use of this planning tool and creating an updated business plan for each MPA in the region.

Impact

Several managers involved in training

West African protected areas

with a financial plan following BlueSeeds training

conservation managers

trained by BlueSeeds in financial planning

0 €

of financial gap for marine conservation in West Africa were discovered between 2020 and 2030 as a result of these training programmes

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BlueSeeds and Baastel helped 37 protected area managers in West Africa improve their ability to create a business plan for their conservation efforts.

The training sessions in pictures

Photo de groupe des gestionnaires guinéens d'aires protégées formés à la planification financière, à Coyah en Guinée

Plage du Banc d'Arguin, en Mauritanie

Formation des gestionnaires guinéens d'aires protégées à la planification financière à Coyah, en Guinée

Coyah, Guinée

Formation des gestionnaires mauritaniens d'aires protégées à la planification financière à Maghmar, en Mauritanie

Formation des gestionnaires guinéens d'aires protégées à la planification financière à Coyah, en Guinée

Photo de groupe des gestionnaires mauritaniens d'aires protégées formés à la planification financière, à Magmar en Mauritanie

Gestionnaires d'aires protégées à Magmar en Mauritanie

Formation des gestionnaires mauritaniens d'aires protégées à la planification financière à Maghmar, en Mauritanie

Photo de groupe des gestionnaires gambiens d'aires protégées formés à la planification financière, à Lamin en Gambie

Our achievements

Training sessions in business planning

To address this issue, BlueSeeds collaborated with management consultancy Baastel to train protected area managers in Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea and Gambia for two to three days, helping them create business plans. Our goals were to:

Make managers more capable of creating a business plan for their protected area
Establish the medium- and long-term financial needs to guarantee the successful management of the designated protected areas and the accomplishment of their funding and conservation goals
Provide current funding sources for specific MPAs and look into potential new funding sources

The main tool used in these training sessions was the Excel business plan matrix. It is simple to use and can be used to assess a protected area’s financial requirements. To get an automatic budget summary by objective, managers are asked to enter their ongoing management expenses, the costs of purchasing new infrastructure and equipment, and the goals and management activities of their protected area. To get an estimate of the deficit and yearly funding needs, the manager only needs to input the MPA’s revenues.

Our achievements