The Global Environment Facility www.gefweb.org(GEF) is a unique international entity with its mission, and mandate reflecting innovative responses to the spirit and outcomes of the landmark United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992. The GEF aims to address critical threats to the global environment and promote environmental benefits, by funding projects and programmes in the GEF focal areas of biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation and persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The underlying rationale for support of all GEF projects is that some global environmental benefit is at stake, and the project seeks to address the threat(s) or need(s) to ensure that the global environmental benefit is conserved, or sustainably used and managed. GEF funds are not substitutes for regular or traditional sources of development funding. The GEF is a financial mechanism structured as a trust fund that operates in collaboration and partnership with the three implementing agencies (UNDP, UNEP, and the World Bank).