Protecting biodiversity in coastal areas

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Mauritania’s coastal region is one of the world’s richest in fish. In addition, more than 2.5 million birds spend the winter months in the country’s largest coastal protection area, the Parc National du Banc d’Arguin (PNBA) alone. Other protected areas such as the Parc National du Diawling (PND) and Chat TBoul form important ecosystems which, taken together, are of global importance. The economic use of natural resources in the form of fishing on the Mauritanian coast, through fishing licenses, makes an important contribution to the state budget and to income-generating employment for the Mauritanian population. The protection of breeding areas for fish and birds therefore not only forms the basis for the preservation of biodiversity, but is also an important economic factor for the Mauritanian economy. The Federal Development Cooperation has been supporting the Mauritanian Coast Guard in monitoring fishing for many years. Funds from the Federal Development Cooperation project Fisheries Monitoring for Sustainable Resource Management are also used to finance investments in the PNBA, such as: B. radar monitoring stations and the expansion of the protection fleet, some of which is deployed in and on the borders of the park. The FC commitment described here complements this approach with two components: 1. Capitalization of the Banc dArguin and Coastal and Marine Biodiversity Trust Fund Limited (BACoMaB) foundation fund. This makes a long-term contribution to financing the operating costs of coastal and marine protected areas in Mauritania. 2. Financing of infrastructure measures in these protected areas that integrate local and ecological construction methods and thus blend in with the coastal landscape. This creates better conditions for the sustainable protection of biodiversity. The aim of the FC module is to ensure the efficient and sustainable management of protected areas to preserve biodiversity and in particular the economically important resource of fish on the Mauritanian coast in the long term.