Financing national protected area networks internationally: the Global Environment Facility as a multilateral mechanism of transfer

This paper addresses the functioning of the present multilateral system for international financing of national protected areas. The paper claims that taken together, this system does not represent a homogenous institutional mechanism but a patchwork of several multilateral institutions and bilateral contractual relationships. The paper particularly analyses the Global Environment Facility (GEF) that serves a mechanism of transfer for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It looks at how the GEF creates incentives for existing and proposed networks of protection and establishes a compensation scheme at the international level.