What is FUNDESNAP?

Because the huge Madidi landscape faces so many threats, including deforestation and road development, WCS works with a number of local partners to protect Madidi. Over the last decade WCS conservationists have developed close working relationships with Bolivian authorities and local communities to help manage the Madidi protected area and adjacent indigenous lands.

The February auction will benefit two of our most important partners, FUNDESNAP and SERNAP. FUNDESNAP is the Spanish acronym for the Bolivian Foundation for the Development of the National System of Protected Areas (Fundación para el Desarrollo del Sistema Nacional de Áreas Protegidas). FUNDESNAP is a non-profit foundation created under Bolivian law in April 2000 to administer resources for the sole purpose of Protected Areas Management.

FUNDESNAP seeks to develop a US $10 million trust fund to protect Madidi. The money will be used to pay for the slaries, equipment and training of Madidi's park guards, among other things. Major challenges facing Bolivia’s system of 22 protected areas include how to achieve financial sustainability over time, how to promote and contribute to ongoing conservation and research initiatives, and how to ensure the rational and sustainable harvest of the country’s natural resources for the purpose of a more equitable economic development process. You can help FUNDESNAP tackle these problems at Madidi by supporting our on-line auction – click here. Or visit the FUNDESNAP website!

As a private, non-profit foundation, FUNDESNAP is characterized by transparent procedures and is free from all political interference (operationally linked but not subsidiary to the Bolivian government). FUNDESNAP does not engage in any policy-making, and limits its staff to a small number of executive, financial and technical professionals. Cost-effectiveness and contained administrative costs are top priorities for the management team of FUNDESNAP.

What is SERNAP?
SERNAP is the organization responsible for protecting Madidi and other treasured Bolivian wildernesses, forever.  SERNAP is the Spanish acronym for Bolivia’s National Park Service (Servicio Nacional de Áreas Protegidas). SERNAP was created in 1998 to administer and manage Bolivia’s 22 protected areas, which cover about 15% of the country. Click here to visit the SERNAP website.

While Madidi is perhaps the most spectacular of Bolivia's protected areas, there are other world-class parks which SERNAP manages. Some of the finest include Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve, and the massive Kaa Iya National Park. WCS played a key role in the establishment of Kaa-Iya and continues to help indingeous communities manage the wild Kaa-Iya landscape of eastern Bolivia. Click here to learn more about this WCS project!

To see a list of WCS projects in Latin America, click here.