'Strengthening Management Capacities for International Cooperation (CICM)': Officials from the Ministry of Finance visit the CMPA Pilot site in Goa

27 Sep, 2016

Officials from the Department of Economic Affairs, (Ministry of Finance, Government of India) visited Dr. Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, the pilot site of the project titled 'Conservation and Sustainable Management of Coastal and Marine Protected Areas (CMPA)'. This exposure visit was part of another of GIZ’s ongoing programme ‘‘Strengthening Management Capacities for International Cooperation (CICM)’. The programme is jointly implemented by GIZ and DEA, and its main thrust is to enhance the management capacities of mid-level officials from the government engaged in Indo-German development Cooperation projects.

Officials from the Department of Economic Affairs, (Ministry of Finance, Government of India) at Dr. Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary

The training programme involved a visit to the project site of an on-going bilateral project. Dr. Aaron Lobo, Technical Advisor of the CMPA Project provided a brief overview of the CMPA Project activities and to visit the projects pilot site in the state of Goa.

Dr. Aaron Lobo presents the CMPA project to the participants

The delegates visited the Dr. Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary and the Chorao island village, the projects pilot site in Goa. Here they met with Dr. Anil Kumar, Deputy Conservator of Forests and the nodal officer for the implementation of the CMPA project in the state. Besides getting a solid understanding of the project, the participants gained first–hand exposure of the mangrove ecosystem, while also gaining knowledge from the newly setup mangrove interpretation facility in the sanctuary. This was followed by a boat trip in the sanctuary and its surrounding waters to learn about the large number of services that these ecosystems confer.

Participants in the sanctuary's backwaters

The DEA officials concurred that such field based trainings are the need of hour, as they provide a better picture of such development cooperation projects, the essence of which is often missed from written documents alone.

Dr. Aaron Lobo explaining the Khazan system of farming to the officials

The CMPA project is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag. The CMPA project is implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of BMUB.