Enhancing the Protected Area System in Sulawesi for Biodiversity Conservation (E-PASS) is an international aid project designed to support the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, specifically in conservation management in Sulawesi. This project was initiated in 2011 and has acquired grant support from GEF (Global Environment Society) of US$ 6,265,000.0 for a period of 5 years (2015-2020).

The project goal is an effectively managed system of protected areas that is well integrated into its surrounding landscape contributing to sustainable, inclusive and equitable development in Sulawesi. The project objective is to strengthen the effectiveness and financial sustainability of Sulawesi’s PA system to respond to existing threats to globally significant biodiversity. With GEF support, interventions at the level of Sulawesi’s terrestrial PA system will:

• Enhance the systemic and institutional capacity for planning and management of the Sulawesi PA system;
• Increase the financial sustainability of the Sulawesi PA system;
• Reduce threats and strengthen collaborative governance in target PAs and buffer zones.

The three outcomes will be delivered through three components below.

Component 1: Enhanced systemic and institutional capacity for planning and management of Sulawesi PA system.

GEF financing under Component 1 will provide incremental support to ongoing Indonesian government efforts to build the systemic and institutional capacities of Sulawesi’s PA system. The island’s network of PAs will receive targeted GEF support in order to increase dramatically the pace and degree of improvement in key capacities needed for their planning and management. Since Sulawesi’s PA system is almost entirely managed by PHKA, a Directorate-General under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry – through its subsidiary local agencies and with headquarters-level support – the component will focus on addressing barriers facing ongoing PHKA efforts in this area. These efforts will be placed in an island-wide context – including monitoring, intelligence-based anti-poaching and PA system consolidation efforts – to ensure that each one strategically addresses the key challenges facing the island’s biodiversity as a whole. In doing so, the project will reach beyond MoEF to engage and build capacities and support of island-based stakeholders, including provincial government in particular, without whose participation the project’s goal would remain unobtainable. The component is expected to have important demonstration/replication effects related to MoEF and local/provincial PA capacity building efforts throughout the Indonesian archipelago.

Component 2: Financial sustainability of the PA system.

Baseline analysis, including preparation of the PA system financial sustainability scorecard, has identified a number of weaknesses and opportunities associated with financing of the Sulawesi sub-system of terrestrial PAs. Many of these of course, reflect, and are linked to, national-level enabling environment.

Under the present component, three inter-linked outputs will work together to support enhanced PA system financial sustainability on the island:

• asses, and raise awareness of, the environmental economic value of Sulawesi’s PAs;
• develop a Sulawesi-level PA system financing strategy, and pilot provincial-level plans, based in part on needs assessments developed before and during the PPG;
• expand and diversify revenue generation for PA management, including from new sources such as nature tourism and REDD+.

Component 3: Threat reduction and collaborative governance in the target PAs and buffer zones.

Under this component, the project will focus on site-level support and capacity building at three target PAs. Landscape profiles have been developed covering each of the above sites and their surroundings. The profiles present in-depth pictures of key issues related to each landscape, including baseline context, PA descriptions, baseline landscape analysis covering threats and barriers, baseline support and opportunities. Additional available information regarding the target sites includes METT analyses and PA finance data, as well as institutional capacity scorecards related to the management authority responsible for each site. Key site-level indicators have been developed based on field visits, including Habitat Intactness scores, Ecosystem Health Index (EHI) scores and threat indices.

Based on the PPG analyses described above, and the project framework developed in the PIF, a tailored package will be provided to each target sites. These will include combinations of support under the following three outputs:

• Integrated land use planning
• Support to PA site-level operations
• Joint PA/buffer zone governance and management.

Site-level activities supported under this Component will be closely linked with related outputs being produced under the other project components. In many cases, this will involve systems, policies, capacities and/or tools being developed at larger scales (mainly island-wide), which can then be piloted at the target sites. However, there will be feedback in both directions, whereby pilot level actions will also be contributing to the stock of knowledge and understanding from which larger scale programme design will emerge.Enhancing the Protected Area System in Sulawesi for Biodiversity Conservation (E-PASS) is an international aid project designed to support the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, specifically in conservation management in Sulawesi. This project was initiated in 2011 and has acquired grant support from GEF (Global Environment Society) of US$ 6,265,000.0 for a period of 5 years (2015-2020).

The project goal is an effectively managed system of protected areas that is well integrated into its surrounding landscape contributing to sustainable, inclusive and equitable development in Sulawesi. The project objective is to strengthen the effectiveness and financial sustainability of Sulawesi’s PA system to respond to existing threats to globally significant biodiversity. With GEF support, interventions at the level of Sulawesi’s terrestrial PA system will:

• Enhance the systemic and institutional capacity for planning and management of the Sulawesi PA system;
• Increase the financial sustainability of the Sulawesi PA system;
• Reduce threats and strengthen collaborative governance in target PAs and buffer zones.

The three outcomes will be delivered through three components below.

Component 1: Enhanced systemic and institutional capacity for planning and management of Sulawesi PA system.

GEF financing under Component 1 will provide incremental support to ongoing Indonesian government efforts to build the systemic and institutional capacities of Sulawesi’s PA system. The island’s network of PAs will receive targeted GEF support in order to increase dramatically the pace and degree of improvement in key capacities needed for their planning and management. Since Sulawesi’s PA system is almost entirely managed by PHKA, a Directorate-General under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry – through its subsidiary local agencies and with headquarters-level support – the component will focus on addressing barriers facing ongoing PHKA efforts in this area. These efforts will be placed in an island-wide context – including monitoring, intelligence-based anti-poaching and PA system consolidation efforts – to ensure that each one strategically addresses the key challenges facing the island’s biodiversity as a whole. In doing so, the project will reach beyond MoEF to engage and build capacities and support of island-based stakeholders, including provincial government in particular, without whose participation the project’s goal would remain unobtainable. The component is expected to have important demonstration/replication effects related to MoEF and local/provincial PA capacity building efforts throughout the Indonesian archipelago.

Component 2: Financial sustainability of the PA system.

Baseline analysis, including preparation of the PA system financial sustainability scorecard, has identified a number of weaknesses and opportunities associated with financing of the Sulawesi sub-system of terrestrial PAs. Many of these of course, reflect, and are linked to, national-level enabling environment.

Under the present component, three inter-linked outputs will work together to support enhanced PA system financial sustainability on the island:

• asses, and raise awareness of, the environmental economic value of Sulawesi’s PAs;
• develop a Sulawesi-level PA system financing strategy, and pilot provincial-level plans, based in part on needs assessments developed before and during the PPG;
• expand and diversify revenue generation for PA management, including from new sources such as nature tourism and REDD+.

Component 3: Threat reduction and collaborative governance in the target PAs and buffer zones.

Under this component, the project will focus on site-level support and capacity building at three target PAs. Landscape profiles have been developed covering each of the above sites and their surroundings. The profiles present in-depth pictures of key issues related to each landscape, including baseline context, PA descriptions, baseline landscape analysis covering threats and barriers, baseline support and opportunities. Additional available information regarding the target sites includes METT analyses and PA finance data, as well as institutional capacity scorecards related to the management authority responsible for each site. Key site-level indicators have been developed based on field visits, including Habitat Intactness scores, Ecosystem Health Index (EHI) scores and threat indices.

Based on the PPG analyses described above, and the project framework developed in the PIF, a tailored package will be provided to each target sites. These will include combinations of support under the following three outputs:

• Integrated land use planning
• Support to PA site-level operations
• Joint PA/buffer zone governance and management.

Site-level activities supported under this Component will be closely linked with related outputs being produced under the other project components. In many cases, this will involve systems, policies, capacities and/or tools being developed at larger scales (mainly island-wide), which can then be piloted at the target sites. However, there will be feedback in both directions, whereby pilot level actions will also be contributing to the stock of knowledge and understanding from which larger scale programme design will emerge.

Contact EPASS: https://epassindonesia.org/en/english-contact-us/