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Protected areas represent one of the pillar of biodiversity conservation. The first national park in Guinee-Bissau was established in 1997. IBAP, the Institute for Biodiversity and Protected Areas, was created in 2004/2005 with the explicit authority and responsibility to protect and manage Guinea-Bissau’s biodiversity endowment through the National System of Protected Areas. By 2011, six protected areas had been legally decreed. During this year, the SNAP should address the 25% of total surface, when additional protected areas will be established.

Conserving biodiversity and establishing and managing protected areas costs money. The Goal 3.4 of CBD is: “To ensure financial sustainability of protected areas and national and regional systems of protected areas”. A preliminary assessment recently conducted under the auspices of the High-level Panel on Global Assessment of Resources for Implementing the CBD Strategic Plan estimated that the global investment required ranges between 130 and 440 billion US$ annually. In Africa, this situation can become dramatic, as national governments often do not

Africa is currently facing a dramatic surge in wildlife trafficking: for example, the illicit ivory trade has more than doubled since 2007, and is over three times greater than it was in 1998. Between 2007 and 2013, rhino poaching increased by 7000% in South Africa, endangering the survival of this specie. EC recently adopted some actions to fight wildlife crime inside and outside the EU, to combat a phenomena that has become one of the most profitable criminal activities worldwide, with