Leveraging Eco-Tourism for Biodiversity Protection — GEF-Financed National Park Management (Dominica)

Dominica, the Eastern Caribbean's most forested island, has over 60% forest cover, but Hurricane Maria destroyed an estimated 85% of that cover in September 2017. In 2022 the government adopted its first National Forest Policy since 1949, and — supported by the multi-donor PROGREEN partnership (World Bank, Germany, Sweden, UK) — has been aligning forest and protected-area policy with financing to fund recovery.

Within that push, the GEF-financed "Leveraging Eco-Tourism for Biodiversity Protection in Dominica" project (World Bank Project ID P170846, roughly US$3.65 million) targets three national parks — Cabrits National Park, Morne Trois Pitons National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and Morne Diablotin National Park — plus the Waitukubuli National Trail. The project rehabilitates ecotourism infrastructure and trails, trains local guides, and introduces e-ticketing so visitor revenue can be captured and reinvested in park and biodiversity management; the wider protected-area effort now covers close to a fifth of Dominica's land, including Kalinago Territory, with local skills training and job-access components.

As of the most recent public reporting (2024), the project remained in implementation; quantified biodiversity-trend data (species counts, habitat-condition indices) and ticketing-revenue figures had not yet been published, so this practice is evidenced on programme design, funding and institutional commitment rather than measured ecological outcomes to date.

Read the full analysis: https://gefbiodiversity.agriculture.gov.dm/