Biodiversity Spending in Lesotho

2001 Reporting

Lesotho[1] reported on financial capacity. There is no financial allocation towards biodiversity by Government. However, the associated programs in natural resource management such as agriculture, wildlife and forestry, range management and land use planning receive Government funding and in their context biodiversity conservation and sustainable use is funded. There however must be a policy reorientation to enable adequate attention to biodiversity within each sub-sector.

2005 Reporting

Lesotho[2] reported that budgetary allocations by national and local Governments as well as different sectoral ministries: US$342,623.00 counterpart contributions to the Biosafety and Conserving Mountain Biodiversity in Southern Lesotho projects

Extra-budgetary resources (identified by donor agencies) US$156,595.54 for Development of National Biosafety Framework GEF funded

2009 Reporting

Lesotho[3] reported on domestic and international funding for priority activities

As alluded to earlier, Lesotho’s commitment to sound biodiversity conservation was demonstrated by development of the National Environment Action Plan. The design of the plan had incorporated input from all national stakeholders to facilitate integration of developmental aspects. The NBSAP priority actions, summarized into the Biodiversity goals aligned to the CBD articles have been structured such that technological advances elsewhere can be translated into biodiversity conservation initiatives that have been harnessed for domestic application. The bulk of projects or interventions have in the light of the above, been implemented in partnership, with substantial portion (+80%) of the finance contributed by donor agencies and counterpart finance targeted at domesticating the processes, to initiate or ensure sustainability. The categories of implementation elements invariably include capital costs, technical support for both execution and technological transfer and community aspects to ensure appreciation and participation to inculcate ownership. The following table provides examples indicating levels of commitment by Donors and Lesotho Government (counterpart).

Table 28: Indicative Funding Levels by Donors and Government

Project / Initiative / Indicative Funding Levels
Donor Funding / Counterpart
CMBSL / US$2,485,00 / US$530,000.00
EMPR (2002 figures) / US$260,719.40 / US$222,193.07
MDTP / US$7,300,000.00 / US$1,100,000.00
HNRRIEP / Ua4,490,000.00 / Ua0,990,000.00
DANCED / Kr9,083,228.00 / Kr971,600.00
GEF Small Grants Programme Operational Cycle 4 / US$500,000.00 / -

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[1] Lesotho (2001). First Country Report to the COP, 14 pp.

[2] Lesotho (2005). Third National Report, Department of National Environment, 139 pp.

[3] Lesotho (2009). Fourth National Report, 138 pp.