Integrated Management of Land-Based Activities in the Sao Francisco Basin

This project develops a watershed management program for the Rio Sao Francisco Basin, which discharges into the South West Atlantic Large Marine Ecosystem and Brazil Current. The strategic, integrated and sustainable program for the management of this system and its coastal zone to be formulated during this project will address the physical, biological, chemical and institutional root causes of the progressive degradation which is affecting the basin and, particularly, the coastal ecosystems. The project will focus on the use of economic instruments and catalyse implementation activities with incremental costs to restore and sustain the coastal zone through improved river basin management included in the watershed management program. The project will complement basin-scale interventions by the Government of Brazil, financed in part from national sources and by The World Bank through the Program for Water Development (PROAGUA) and other donors. The project forms the Latin American demonstration project under the Global Program of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA) GEF operational program element. The project identifies specific strategies, investment projects and activities that meet GEF criteria, catalyse preparation of an integrated watershed management program (WMP), and serve as a demonstration project for the implementation of the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA) in Latin America. Building upon previous studies, the primary objective of this project will be to conduct planning and feasibility studies required to formulate a WMP that will promote environmentally sustainable development of the basin as a means of managing environmental degradation of the coastal zone. The WMP will include the identification and implementation of appropriate economic instruments, required to incorporate land-based environmental concerns affecting the coastal zone into the future development policies, plans and programs of the riparian states. Evaluation of the use of economic instruments as a policy mechanism to achieve environmentally sustainable modes of development is viewed as a key element of the WMP. The project will guide the Ministry of Environment, Water Resources and Legal Amazon (MMA) of the Federal Government of Brazil in their implementation of complementary World Bank loan financed programs (e.g., the Program for Water Development, PROAGUA) as well as those actions with incremental global benefit that might be implemented in subsequent activities.