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The Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (a United States Agency for International Development funded initiative) will be holding a workshop on: on August 14-16, 2018, in Nairobi, Kenya.

Over the past 3 years this collaboration between 7 of the largest conservation NGO’s in Africa has explored how human communities are being impacted by changes in climate, how they are responding, and how their responses impact biodiversity. ABCG members and partners conducted over 600 interviews across 21 different sites in sub-Saharan Africa with communities engaged in farming, fishing and pastoralism.

At this workshop ABCG’s Managing Global Change Impacts Working Group will present their key findings, including an analysis of the survey data collected, historic climate analyses for the various sites, and projections of how and where communities might respond in the future, and discuss impediments to adaptation of effective strategies. The results and discussions will provide guidance to governments, NGO’s and the communities themselves to develop climate change coping strategies in future conservation and land-use planning efforts.

The latter part of the workshop will include a discussion of the future direction of this work, how to incorporate these findings into workplans? which new partners to engage with?.

See event page for more information including the workshop agenda>

For more information please contact Evelyn Namvua, ABCG Communications and Engagement Officer at: enamvua@abcg (dot) org .

Photo caption: Human response survey by TNC, Makame, Tanzania. Photo Credit: Roshni Lodhia

The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is a consultation and dialogue platform between China and Africa leaders and ministers. FOCAC meetings have been held every three years alternatively in China and Africa since 2000, and provide an opportunity for reviewing and highlighting areas of cooperation and development between China and Africa. The seventh Ministerial Conference and Heads of States and Governments Summit on China-Africa Cooperation will be held Beijing, China in September 2018 under the theme, ‘win-win cooperation and join hands to build a closer community with a shared future for China and Africa’.

China has invested billions of dollars into Africa in various sectors such as infrastructure development, telecommunications, power generation, mining, healthcare, agriculture and banking in recent decades, and that investment is increasing. As of late 2015, President Xi Jinping pledged an additional $60 billion to be invested in Africa (Forbes, 2017). Whereas this investment has benefited many African countries, it has also come with its fair share of challenges and a key one is the loss of the continent’s rich natural resources through activities such as mining and logging which have in turn affected the breeding zones and natural habitat of wildlife. Chinese investment in Africa has increased the opportunities and networks for illegal wildlife trafficking that have resulted to a decrease of populations of African species, such as elephants, rhinos, tigers and pangolins. It’s important therefore that Chinese investment in Africa is undertaken in a more sustainable manner – one that does not continue to deplete the continents natural resource base and negatively impact the continent’s diverse ecosystems.

On June 19-20, 2018 the World Wildlife Fund and TRAFFIC, the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network, hosted a regional African FOCAC awareness workshop focusing on social and environmental sustainability consistent with the ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals. With the upcoming summit in September 2018, the workshop created a platform for dialogue, exchange and sharing of good practices, lessons learned amongst government officials involved in the FOCAC process and Civil Society Organizations and other stakeholders engaged in the Africa-China Cooperation.

Participants discussed the need to ensure that projects supported by the FOCAC framework adhere to environmental standards so as to avoid compromising the natural coping strategy that comes from the continent’s biodiverse richness. Africa needs to develop a strategy for engagement with China that would see such projects undertaken in a sustainable manner. The financial investment that China continues to make in the continent should not take place at the expense of the continent’s natural resources.

FOCAC provides an important process and platform to discuss conservation interests and opportunities that can substantively influence Chinese investment decision making in Africa. Participants of the workshop identified key issues and developed recommendations on how to support and engage the FOCAC process while strengthening the importance of environmental and social sustainability commitments and use of best international standards within trade, aid and investment agreements between China and Africa. These recommendations will be shared with African countries for engagement at the upcoming summit in Beijing.

Resources for further reading
A Scalable Approach to Engaging Chinese Overseas Enterprises to Mitigate Impacts of Wildlife Trafficking in Africa, Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group’s (ABCG) Emerging Issues small grant project carried out by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Photo: Participants at the workshop. Photo Credit: WWF.

Human communities living in remote and rich biodiversity areas are often impoverished with little to no access to improved water sources and sanitation facilities. The sustainability of freshwater resources and safe drinking water projects depend on the appropriate conservation of the broader watershed. Freshwater conservation and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) activities integrate livelihood objectives with watershed management approaches, and link rural and urban water supply and sanitation. These linkages reduce the impact of degradation on the watershed and protect the goods and services that the ecosystem provides.

In many developing and emerging economies, water-related risks, such as floods, shortages and pollution, are creating a rising tide of increasing business risks for companies, threatening their profits, supply chains, investments and reputations. These risks are also having massive impacts on communities and governments, threatening broader socio-economic development.

New partnerships among governments, companies and communities must be forged urgently to address these threats effectively. Multi-sectoral actors need to effectively work together to address water-related risks. This is built on the understanding that the complex and multiple causes of threats to water security cannot be managed by any single actor and that joint efforts are necessary.

Generally, partnerships are formed on the watershed level and seek to include water users, water managers and water influencers. Therefore, freshwater conservation and WASH practitioners need to understand how to build partnerships at the watershed level to tackle shared water risks and threats facing communities and businesses to ensure water is secured for social and economic development.

Recognizing the need to better link freshwater conservation and WASH initiatives, the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group’s (ABCG) Freshwater Conservation (FW) and WASH working group initiated a community of practice (CoP) with the aim of establishing an integrated learning and knowledge sharing platform between FW-WASH practitioners in a supportive and collaborative environment.

On May 15, 2018 the Kenya Water and Sanitation Civil Society Network (KEWASNET) in partnership with ABCG organised a community of practice meeting that focused on sharing knowledge and experiences in building partnerships for water security. Practitioners involved in formulating multi-stakeholder partnerships shared their knowledge and practical experiences on: relevant tools for formulating multi-stakeholder partnerships; ensuring proper monitoring and communication within the partnership; examples of innovative financing models for multi-stakeholder partnerships; and private sector engagement in partnerships.

Partnerships are important in establishing rules and setting up a monitoring system that facilitates the sustainable use of a finite resource like water. To be successful, partnerships should be acknowledged by the authority such as the government. They also need to be established under well-articulated structures such as the water risk and action framework. The water risk and action framework is a methodology used to structure and harmonize the complicated issue of forming partnerships. This framework ensures that an in-depth analysis of all pertinent issues during partnership creation and execution.

Read more about the event in the workshop report here: Partnerships for Water Security: Wash Community of Practice Meeting Report

The discovery of oil in the Albertine Rift of western Uganda has brought great opportunities and threats to this region. Oil production in western Uganda started in 2006 following many years of oil exploration with the mapping of the first oil seepage in the 1920s. The resulting infrastructure development-construction of a road network, oil facilities, pipelines, an international airport and others, are putting immense pressure in this ecosystem. Additionally, population growth fueled by refugees migrating from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo to Uganda, and internal migration within Uganda as people move into the area looking for jobs further increases pressure on the natural resource base leading to agricultural expansion and deforestation. Oil development and a rapidly growing population is also causing social disruptions that include land grabbing, competition for housing, and overburdening of the social services.

Over 60 stakeholders from the petroleum, biodiversity, government, private sector, non-governmental organizations, international development agencies and others sectors met in Hoima for a three day workshop from May 22-24, 2018, to discuss the way forward on developing a multi-sectoral process that creates a win-win scenario for development and nature.

‘According to the International Monetary Fund, petrol could account for up to 7% of Uganda’s Gross Domestic Product,’ the US ambassador to Uganda, Deborah R. Malac, noted while making her opening remarks.

‘It is expected that 15,000 direct jobs will be generated by this opportunity and this will in turn generate another 150,000 supporting jobs.’ Ambassador Malac added.

Biodiversity of the Albertine Rift
The Albertine Rift is one of the most biodiverse regions in Africa. Fifty percent of the remaining mountain gorillas in the world reside within the Ugandan borders of the region. The Albertine Rift forests are a key tourism destination due to their rich flora and fauna and the rift valley lakes contribute to the food and income security of local people through fishing.

‘More than 80% of Ugandans depend on indigenous medicine that relies on locally available raw material from the forest.’ The State Minister for Water Resources, Ronald Kibuule, noted while delivering the Prime Minister’s, Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, opening speech.

Environmental sensitivity of the Albertine Rift
The Petroleum Authority of Uganda is aware of the need to undertake oil and gas exploration in an environmental sensitive manner to minimize negative impacts to biodiversity and to the wellbeing of Ugandans. An initial environmental impact assessment and annual environmental audits; updating environmental laws, guidelines and regulations; developing environmental friendly technology, such as low energy and cable less technology for conducting seismic surveys; and regular engagement with oil companies are some of the techniques that the authority is applying to ensure environment protection and biodiversity management in this region.

‘We are increasingly seeing that success in both the development and conservation sectors can result in unexpected and undesired impacts in other sectors, although we all want each sector (infrastructure, health, food security and environment) to continue to be successful.’ David Wilkie, event organizer and the Executive Director Conservation Measures and Communities at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said.

‘In a complex world we want to make sure that we minimize the risk of success in one sector causing failure in another. At a minimum this means that different sectors need to share their goals, aspirations, and plans so that together we can ensure that all sectors succeed and avoid undesired and unexpected outcomes. Multi-sectoral collaboration is new and will not be easy, but it is necessary for effective investment in human well-being and environmental conservation,’ added Wilkie

Land use planning, biodiversity conservation, law enforcement and monitoring, policy implementation, enabling collaboration and carrying out more research on the impact of oil and gas, are key issues that need to be addressed in this region to ensure sustainable development.

The meeting called on all actors to work together in addressing these issues to ensure that development does not negatively impact the rich Albertine Rift region critical to sustaining both people and the planet.

The workshop was organized by the Uganda Biodiversity Fund and the Wildlife Conservation Society and with the active engagement and generosity of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Uganda, the BRIDGE Collaborative, the USAID Bureau for Africa, and the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group.

For more information contact: David Wilkie [dwilkie@wcs.org]

See event photos here

Read related post: Experts to Launch a Collaborative Process to Ensure Economic Development in Western Uganda Has a Positive Effect on People and Nature

Photos
Photo1: Group photo of the workshop participants. Photo credit: WCS, Uganda
Photo2: Participants having a discussion at the workhop. Photo credit: WCS, Uganda

Uganda’s Lake Albert basin is currently experiencing various forms of development which are being accelerated by oil industry development in western Uganda. With plans to extract, refine and export 2.2 billion barrels of recoverable fossil fuel located on the shores of Lake Albert, there is an urgent need in western Uganda to ensure that development is undertaken in a sustainable manner that does not lead to negative outcomes for biodiversity and communities. To address this need, around 40 experts from the public and private sectors, civil society, academia, and the development assistance community will convene in Hoima town, western Uganda from May 22-24, 2018 to launch a collaborative process that both encourages and enables cross-sectoral action to ensure that economic development in this region has a net positive effect on the wellbeing of Ugandan citizens and on nature conservation.

Fossil fuel production, hydro-electric generation, road construction and agricultural development in western Uganda have enormous potential to improve the wellbeing of all Uganda citizens. But to ensure that economic development does not result in undesired social and ecological impacts, the Government of Uganda, and its private sector and civil society partners, need to find ways to ensure that development is carried in a manner that is beneficial to both people and the environment. This requires that all relevant sectors are actively engaged in mitigating both immediate and cumulative undesired social and ecological impacts.

Developing mitigation actions

Total, the multi-national company holding the oil and gas extraction rights, is in the process of developing financing plans for effective mitigation actions and recognizes the need to establish a multi-sectoral approach. The Wildlife Conservation Society, through its participation in Total’s Biodiversity and Livelihoods Advisory Committee is working closely with the company to ensure compliance with the mitigation hierarchy and with the principle of a net gain in benefits for the region. This workshop will enable the development of a credible and practical multi-sectoral investment plan for: a) increasing family access to reproductive health services; b) growing the supply of sustainably produced livestock to meet demand for animal source protein; c) raising women’s income and youth employment; and d) strengthening the management of public protected areas and securing the growing wildlife tourism industry.

This workshop is designed to build on the solid foundation of work by the Government of Uganda, the Uganda Biodiversity Fund, the private sector and civil society organizations to develop a consensus multi-sectoral road-map for ensuring that the much needed economic development does not result in unexpected and undesired social and ecological impacts that would imperil the future wellbeing of Ugandan families.

The workshop is expected to break new ground in enabling a multi-sectoral pathway to ensure that desired outcomes in one sector do not result in unexpected and undesired outcomes in others.

The workshop is being organized by the Uganda Biodiversity Fund together with the Wildlife Conservation Society and with the active engagement and generosity of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Uganda, the BRIDGE Collaborative, the USAID Bureau for Africa, and the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group through its emerging issues small grants.

The Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group emerging issues small grants initiative identifies and develops strategies to respond to new and growing threats that are likely to shape conservation priorities in the coming years, and influence the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation efforts in Africa.

For more information contact: David Wilkie [dwilkie@wcs.org]

Decreased rainfall and shifting seasonal patterns in Madagascar have seen farming and fishing communities adopting a number of coping techniques to deal with failing crops and declining fish availability, such as resorting to unsustainable fishing practices, increasing extraction of natural resources and pursuing unsustainable livelihoods. This is according to recent findings from interviews conducted by the World Wildlife Fund in Madagascar and featured in the May 2018 issue of the climate crowd newsletter.

Climate Crowd is an initiative to crowdsource data on how people and nature are affected by climate change, and implement solutions that help people and nature in a changing climate.

The report further explains that, destructive fishing practices being the most commonly reported coping strategy, overexploitation of fish and associated damage to marine ecosystems represents the biggest threat to biodiversity in the area. Other threats to biodiversity include, the degradation of natural habitat and disturbance to wildlife associated with increased hunting and foraging activity in forests, and the destruction of forest ecosystems associated with logging and land clearing activities.

The Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group, through the Managing Global Change Impact (GCI) thematic area, has collected field data on the coping responses of human communities to climate change across 11 countries in sub- Saharan Africa: Cameroon, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia. This data is available to the public through the World Wildlife Fund’s Climate Crowd and provides knowledge that can guide adaptation strategies towards improving conservation outcomes under future climatic conditions.

Download the report here: Madagascar summary findings

Photo: Managing Global Change Impact thematic area study sites by ABCG

Michelle Wieland is the Socio-Economic Advisor for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Africa Program based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and has been working in Africa for the past 18 years. She is also part of the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (ABCG) Land and Resources Tenure Rights task group working on the gazettement of the Kabobo National Reserve in DRC. She talks to ABCG about her work and on protecting what is now the Kabobo Wildlife Reserve.

Tell us about your current work at the Wildlife Conservation Society?
In my role I support our country programs in Africa by providing guidance on how to engage the community when dealing with social issues or challenges that affect the community. This includes helping people understand social concepts in conservation that may not have been in university curriculums. Good governance, the importance of human wellbeing, land tenure, effective engagement, and setting gender targets.

How does your work in DRC relate to ABCG activities?
The Wildlife Conservation Society has been working in what is now the Kabobo Wildlife Reserve for almost a decade. Years of work in this area has uncovered the biodiversity richness of the area with identification of new and endemic plant and animal species. Located in southeastern DRC, Kabobo Reserve is also home to the several communities living around the area and who depend on it for their livelihood.

Through the Land and Resources Tenure Rights working group, ABCG is piloting new approaches for securing tenure in critical ecosystems in Africa, one such ecosystem is the Kabobo Reserve. In this area, we are working to protect biodiversity through a co-management approach that will enable the local the community exercise their authority in managing their land in ways that are consistent with conservation inorder to preserve the rich biodiversity of this area.

What are some challenges facing the reserve that make protecting it important?
The forests of Kabobo feed and protect the hydro-electric dam, the main source of electricity for the town of Kalemie, additionally Kabobo Reserve together with adjacent Ngandja Reserve and Luama Katanga Reserve contributes to the conservation of the largest forest and water catchment on Lake Tanganyika supporting the fishing industry that feeds the province. Outside herders coming to graze their cattle and risking deforestation and land conflicts poses a big challenge. Illegal logging, bushmeat hunting, migration, mining, and conflict are among other challenges that threaten to degrade the forests that protect both the dam and waters of the lake.

Is the community aware of the importance of this area?
The local community, both indigenous Batwa and their Bantu neighbors, place great value in this area as it supports their livelihood and traditional heritage. The provincial government also understands this value and has been a critical supporter of our program. Much more work needs to be done to engage urban dwellers about the importance of Kabobo and the forests. One of conservation’s biggest challenges across the globe is to engage an ever-increasing urban population—and is something we all need to do a better job at.

“The decree’s co-management approach is a first of its kind in DRC that will allow the local community to contribute to the governance of the reserve.”

In December 2016, the area was officially proclaimed as a provincial reserve, how did ABCG contribute to this?
With wild places diminishing, this was an important milestone for the many years of work in this area by many different partners, but in great part due to Deo Kujirakwinja, the WCS project leader in Kabobo. ABCG activities supported the active involvement and participation of the local community in the gazettement process. The process involved engaging the local community and the local government in order to secure consent to gazette the area and their support in the process. Setting up community structures that will enable the local community to manage the reserve and training these structures on the co-management model. The decree’s co-management approach is a first of its kind in DRC that will allow the local community to contribute to the governance of the reserve.

What are the next steps following the gazettement and what lessons can you share from this work?
The WCS team under the leadership of Deo is working on building the capacity of the community and the local government on the co-management approach and setting up the legal framework for the approach. Good governance is fundamental for Kabobo, and includes not only capacity, but also ensuring legitimacy and all stakeholders, weak and poor, to follow the rules that are set up in the reserve. We want to share experiences learned in the gazettement process with other actors and apply these lessons in other areas where we need to establish more protected areas.

What other biodiversity threats should conservationist invest more in?
Illegal bushmeat hunting and overfishing is the biggest threat to wildlife in central Africa, and a growing threat across the continent– there is need to do more work in this area in order to understand the cultural, weak governance, and food insecurity drivers that contribute to unsustainable use in order to develop feasible solutions.

Tell us of a conservation activity that you’re proud of
One person that continues to inspire me is a former National Park gate attendant that I worked with in Malawi 18 years ago. At that time, I was a Peace Corps Volunteer implementing the community-based natural resource management policy, and in need of a counterpart. I successfully had the gate attendant, a community member, reassigned to the community conservation team despite him not having the normal academic credentials necessary to be a ranger. Together, we were able to engage the local chiefs to create a village lodge for tourists interested in local culture. This community endeavor remains operational today. The success of this work came from the local people’s commitment and motivation, and more importantly I learned the greater significance of having local, even if less academically ‘qualified’, staff to attain project success.

Photos
Photo1: Michelle Wieland. Photo credit: ABCG
Photo2: WCS holding a consultative meeting at village level in Kabobo. Photo credit: WCS