This paper addresses the functioning of the present multilateral system for international financing of national protected areas. The paper claims that taken together, this system does not represent a homogenous institutional mechanism but a patchwork of several multilateral institutions and bilateral contractual relationships. The paper particularly analyses the Global Environment Facility (GEF) that serves a mechanism of transfer for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It looks at how the GEF creates incentives for existing and proposed networks of protection and establishes a compensation scheme at the international level.
