El fondo de conservación colombiano: un ejemplo de política ambiental en áreas protegidas

Biological diversity is considered as a public good, non rival and not excludable. Nevertheless, there are environmental goods and services which can not be considered as pure public goods. This is the case of Common Pool Resources, rivals and not excludables. Because of the lack of property rights definition in protected areas, State intervention is allowed. This fact is viewed under the Institutional Economics analysis of Property Rights conducted by Coase, Alchian and Demsetz. At a national level, protected areas use to be financed by the State. But in previous recent years, this trend is world while decreasing. In Colombia, others natural resources conservation initiativesby indigenous and Afro communities has showed their success and received support by national and international private environmental organisations. This milestone leads to the creation of new environmental management alliances: intersectorial, private-public partnership and among social actors. In this document it is analysed an EnvironmentalPolicy‘s economic instrument: Conservation Trust Funds and specially the Colombian Conservation Trust Fund of Biodiversity and Protected Areas –Patrimonio Natural, in Spanish established in December 2005. This economic instrument is an efficient tool that gives greater confidence to donors, increases the financial performance in protected areas and develops a conservationist synergy among economic agents. Future challenges of this tool are to increase the economic patrimony for the preservation of more Colombian representative ecosystems through new financial agreements, to build awide network of agents with conservationist behaviour and to be the fundamental basis for a conscientious economic valuation of this public good.