Strategy Overview
The Foundation awarded its first grants on the mainland of Africa in 1995, concentrating on the Great Lakes region, and in 2000, this focus was narrowed to the Albertine Rift. The Albertine Rift region extends from just north of Lake Albert in northern Uganda down to the southern tip of Lake Tanganyika, including the escarpment and associated protected areas. The area encompasses all or part of six different countries: eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), western Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, western Tanzania and northern Zambia. Since 2000, the Foundation has awarded 27 grants totaling approximately US$8 million in support of biodiversity conservation in the region.
The central goal of the MacArthur Foundation’s grantmaking in the Albertine Rift is to strengthen conditions for sustained conservation of biodiversity, ecosystem processes and evolutionary options. To accomplish this goal, the Foundation will provide funds for specific priority landscapes to strengthen the capacity of national and local institutions to conserve and manage the Rift’s biodiversity over the long term.
Grantmaking priorities The Albertine Rift contains more than half of continental Africa’s bird species and nearly 40 percent of its mammal species. There are more endemic mammals, birds and amphibians here than any other site in continental Africa. Although the Albertine Rift covers 1 percent of the continent’s landmass, it contains 14.5 percent of its plant species. The Albertine Rift has numerous flagship species, but the mountain gorilla and Grauer’s gorilla (eastern lowland gorilla) are the best known. Other species of special concern include chimpanzees and the elephant.
The Albertine Rift is important not only for its biological diversity, but also for the ecological processes and services it sustains. The snow-capped Ruwenzori Mountains form one of the largest and most significant catchment areas in Uganda, and the most permanent source of the White Nile. The habitats in the Albertine Rift range from the glaciers and rock at the top of the Ruwenzori mountains down through alpine moorland, giant heather, bamboo forest, and montane forest to lowland forest, savanna woodland and savanna grassland. The threats that impact biodiversity in the Albertine Rift region are numerous and vary within and among countries. However, loss of habitat through deforestation and forest degradation is a major region-wide threat, while climate change is an emerging challenge.
As in other CSD Focal Areas, the Foundation has two broad goals for biodiversity conservation in the Albertine Rift: 1) conservation of priority landscapes, and 2) building and strengthening local institutional capacity to manage biodiversity. The Foundation’s priorities for implementing these two strategies were developed in 2005, drawing from a regional strategic framework for conservation of the Albertine Rift that was developed between 2001- 2004 by national and international organizations from or with a long experience in the region. These strategic priorities will guide two additional three-year rounds of grantmaking in 2008 and 2011.
Conserved Landscapes. The Greater Virunga and Nyungwe-Kibira landscapes have been identified as CSD priorities and Kahuzi-Biega-Itombwe as an exploratory landscape. During the 2008 and 2011 grant cycles CSD will support initiatives within these landscapes that support effective management of existing conservation areas, enhance community conservation in areas surrounding parks and reserves, and promote regional and sectoral collaboration for conservation. The Foundation is also interested in work that addresses and adapts to the likely effects of climate chnage on biodiversity conservation in these areas.
Building Conservation Capacity. The strategy for strengthening institutions in the Albertine Rift includes a particular focus on providing support for government agencies and universities. Support will also be provided to local NGOs that address the Foundation’s priority landscape and capacity building objectives.
Supporting Applied Research. The majority of the Foundation’s funding will focus on the twin goals of conserving large landscapes and building local institutional capacity. However, there is a continuing need to promote the generation of knowledge and the development of new models for conservation that help address conservation issues specific to the Albertine Rift. Some of these research ideas might have broader international relevance and can be integrated into CSD’s Research and Development grantmaking area. Funding over the next nine years will therefore include support for research on topics critical to the future implementation of conservation in the country.
National University of Rwanda, Department of Biology (Butare, Rwanda)
$390,000 to provide quality conservation sciences courses and training for undergraduate students from Rwanda and neighboring countries in the Albertine Rift (over three years). (2005)
International Institute for Sustainable Development (Winnipeg, Canada)
$325,000 in support of integrating peace and conflict impact assessments into conservation interventions in the Albertine Rift (over three years). (2005)
