The UN Foundation provides support to UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre in order to meet the needs of its natural World Heritage sites.

Below are examples of current UN Foundation grants focusing on World Heritage sites throughout the world:

World Heritage Program for India
The UN Foundation is working with Indian non-governmental organizations, national and state governments, and the United Nations to protect India’s five natural World Heritage Sites—Kaziranga, Keoladeo Ghana, Manas, Nanda Devi, and Sundarbans, which are home to many unique animals in danger of extinction, such as the Asian elephant, leopard, and Siberian Crane. The program aims to conserve the sites by encouraging local residents to reduce the use of limited natural resources, curb the poaching of animals, and manage national parks more efficiently.

Repatriation of Mountain Bongos
In January 2004, 18 mountain bongos were sent from 13 zoos across America to Mount Kenya National Park, a priority World Heritage site. This unprecedented partnership—between a grassroots conservation group, 13 zoos from the U.S. , the United Nations, the Kenyan National government, and Kenyan non-governmental organizations—is the first step of a multiple phase program that will reestablish the mountain bongo in the wild.

Promoting Mexico's World Heritage
Working with UNESCO, the UN Foundation gave $500,000 to support an effort to protect Mexico's unique and biologically rich islands in the Gulf of Mexico by raising them to a status befitting World Heritage designation. Over-fishing, unmanaged tourism, and other development pressures currently threaten the region's ecosystem. Last year, the Mexican government, with help from local and international conservation groups, purchased an island - Espiritu Santo - and dedicated it to the people of Mexico as a protected area. UN Foundation funds will help UNESCO expand conservation efforts on Espiritu Santo and surrounding islands by improving their environmental management and facilitating their nomination as a World Heritage site.

Rapid Response Facility for World Heritage
Partnering with UNESCO and Fauna and Flora International, the UN Foundation provided $1.5 million to help pilot a Rapid Response Facility that can deploy timely funding and technical assistance to World Heritage sites that are either facing emergency needs or are placed on the World Heritage Convention's 'Sites in Danger' list. There is currently no flexible funding mechanism capable of providing emergency assistance in a timely fashion.

Promoting Ecotourism around Kamchatka World Heritage Sites
Partnering with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the UN Foundation has provided $182,000 to a UNDP-Global Environment Facility project that will conserve salmon stocks around the Kamchatka World Heritage sites in Russia. Implemented in partnership with the Wild Rivers Research Support Center, the project promotes ecotourism as a means of generating revenue for local communities and builds a local constituency of support for salmon conservation. The partnership is the first phase of a larger effort to build ecotourism as a sustainable development model for the region.

Central Africa World Heritage Forestry Initiative
In collaboration with the UNESCO and the Food and Agriculture
Organization, the UN Foundation and its funding partners have dedicated $6.6 million to the Central Africa World Heritage Forestry Initiative, a project protecting the
biological resources in Central Africa. The initiative seeks to regulate the hunting and trade of wild animals and helps local authorities manage three key trans-boundary zones: the Gamba-Conkouati, the Odzala-Minkebe-Dja-Boumba-Nki, and the Sangha Tri-National parks. Project implementation will be carried out by the European Union's ECOFAC initiative, Conservation International, the World Wildlife Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the Jane Goodall Institute.

World Heritage Program for Brazil
The UN Foundation provided $3.6 million to help improve the management of Brazil's protected areas to World Heritage standards. The effort, launched by UNESCO, the Brazilian government, and NGOs will capitalize on the global prestige of the World Heritage designation to promote better management, improve local awareness, and encourage ecotourism. The five World Heritage sites initially targeted are: Iguacu National Park, the Discovery Coast Atlantic Forest Reserves, the Atlantic Forest Southeast Reserve, the Pantanal Conservation Area, and the Jau National Park. Funding partners include: Conservation International, the Nature Conservancy, and the World Wildlife Fund.

Community-Based Commercial Enterprise Development
With $260,000 of UN Foundation support, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has piloted a plan to develop a series of community-based forest enterprises at the Bwindi World Heritage Site in Uganda and Mount Emei World Heritage Site in China. In an effort to protect both areas, the plans provide the resource-dependent community living near park boundaries with alternative enterprises that harvest non-wood natural resources and promote ecotourism. The project, also financed by the Bwindi Conservation Trust, will initiate an intensive planning phase involving local communities and the FAO; with the completion of the planning phase, FAO hopes to identify additional partners to support a larger initiative.

Since it was founded in 1998, the United Nations Foundation has committed nearly $50 million to more than 60 projects promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency. Several of these initiatives are described below.

Collaborating Label and Appliance Standards Program (CLASP)
Worldwide, energy use for appliances, lighting, and other in-building applications accounts for one third of total energy consumption and over one quarter of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. Without focused efforts to reduce the energy consumption by appliances and equipment, electricity demand will continue to outstrip supply in the developing world. Energy standards and labeling programs can help meet this rising demand in an environmentally-friendly manner. CLASP supports energy efficiency standards and labeling programs in China, India, Brazil, and South Africa. In China alone, CLASP’s voluntary labels will save an estimated 20,000 GWh over the next 10 years, avoiding almost seven million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Consumer Financing Program for Solar Photovoltaic Systems
The Consumer Financing Program establishes a rural finance facility to buy down the initial costs of lending to consumers purchasing solar systems for electrification of their homes. The program will leverage UN Foundation resources by a factor of six to seven from Indian banks and solar PV vendors toward the electrification of 20,000 rural households. The impact will grow as local financial institutions increase commercial lending to the solar energy sector.

Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEP)
To increase energy access and promote socio-economic development in poverty-laden regions, the UN Foundation pledged $300,000 to the Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEP), a joint initiative of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank. By developing innovative funding mechanisms, the GVEP program helps small and medium-sized enterprises establish clean energy projects in developing countries. GVEP targets Brazil, India, and Tanzania and will: help leverage private sector investment, develop effective consumer credit approaches that address barriers to rural energy financing, design pre-investment facilities to help entrepreneurs defray high up-front costs for clean energy projects; and develop training programs for financial institutions serving clients in rural areas.

Public-Private Partnerships For Efficient CDM Operations
A key component of the Kyoto Protocol, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), enables developed countries to meet a portion of their emission-reduction obligations by implementing emission reduction projects in developing countries. As a conduit for new foreign investment and technology transfer, the CDM has the potential to contribute to sustainable development. For host countries to implement CDM activities efficiently, however, there is a critical need for capacity development at the human, institutional, and system-wide levels. This project: engages national private-sector entrepreneurs in selected host countries in learning-by-doing CDM capacity development; assists appropriate government ministries in creating a sound CDM governance system; and encourages south-south technology, information, and knowledge sharing with respect to the CDM.

Renewable Energy Enterprise Development (REED)
REED contributes to a clean energy future for the rural poor by increasing the capacity of the private sector to offer energy services based on clean, renewable energy technologies. These services provide environmental and social benefits and delivers the energy necessary for sustainable local economic growth. The REED model couples enterprise development services with modest amounts of start-up financing, seeding new businesses that supply modern energy services that are both affordable to the rural poor and effective responses to global climate change. UN Foundation funds REED activities in Africa, Brazil, and China.

Solar Water Heating in China
This initiative promotes solar thermal technology as an alternative to coal combustion for the production of hot water in China’s residential sector, expanding the use of solar energy for heating water by integrating high-quality solar technology into attractive and cost-effective building designs. The project focuses on strengthening capacity within the building industry for integration of solar water heating technology into new residential construction. It also conducts consumer outreach on the benefits of solar technology and explores opportunities for creating financial incentives for real estate developers and home buyers to use solar systems.