All posts by : abcg

From USAID Global Waters

‘Uganda’s Budongo-Bugoma Forest Corridor, situated in the north of the Albertine Rift, is considered to be one the most biodiverse regions of Africa, well known for its chimpanzee population. However, this biodiversity hotspot is under pressure from high population growth, deforestation, and seasonal water supply extremes — and the flash point is often access to water.

‘Elsewhere on the continent in South Africa’s dry Eastern Cape Province, the country’s last free-flowing river, the Mzimvubu, is experiencing environmental stresses of its own. Surrounding grasslands are overgrazed, free-roaming livestock pollute the river, invasive tree species proliferate the landscape, and the majestic mountain terrain is severely eroded. In spite of this degradation, the river serves as the vital water source for more than one million people (and growing), many of whom are struggling to make a living off the land.

‘The pressures on these two ecosystems and the humans and wildlife that depend upon them are immense. How does one promote conservation and environmental preservation in communities lacking in such basic human needs as regular water supply and sanitation? The answer may lie in the intersection of freshwater resource management and water, sanitation, and hygiene (FW-WASH).

In Uganda, ‘interventions target 10 villages and range from restoring and supplying new water sources to engaging the community at the school level to improve sanitation and hygiene practices.

In South Africa, ‘trained community volunteers took on the first phase of pilot work to protect the river and improve water quality in four Alfred Nzo District Municipality sites.

‘Water quality monitors help perform biodiversity analysis to see what improvements in stream quality are taking place.

‘In 2011, USAID began funding a unique partnership of seven U.S.–based international conservation NGOs — the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (ABCG) — to strengthen collaboration to address complex conservation challenges in sub-Saharan Africa and identify solutions. The consortium currently tackles five issue areas, one of which is the link between global health and biodiversity conservation, which includes an exploration of FW-WASH.

‘By linking FW and WASH, USAID aims to reduce watershed degradation and pollution and improve the health of the water sources and the populations who depend upon them. Protecting and restoring freshwater ecosystems that serve as drinking water sources for the poor and underserved are considered important measures to reduce water insecurity, an increasing concern in Africa and a key goal of the U.S. Government Global Water Strategy.

Read the entire article that was part of World Water Day USAID Global Water newsletter stories here: A Win-Win Approach to Biodiversity, March 12, 2018

Photo caption: The CSA team and water monitors conduct a stream quality assessment to determine changes and improvements in stream health. Photo credit: Patrick Nease/Conservation Internationale

The 2018 World Water Day theme, Nature for Water, speaks of the importance of working on nature-based solutions to the water challenges we face in the 21st century.

The Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group, through its thematic working group Global Health Linkages to Biodiversity Conservation, is working on the integration of freshwater conservation and Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) by building the capacity of communities to conserve freshwater resources while improving human health and well-being.

We are implementing this integrated approach in South Africa through our members, Conservation International (CI) and Conservation South Africa, CI’s local affiliate office, and in Uganda through the Jane Goodall Institute.

Working in 10 villages in the Albertine rift region of Hoima and Masindi Districts in Uganda, the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) has been working on building local community capacity to conserve freshwater resources and improving sanitation and hygiene. This region contains an important network of tropical rainforest, which faces threats due to high human population growth, such as deforestation, human-wildlife conflict due to shared water points, as well as sanitation challenges.

Integrated Freshwater Conservation and WASH achievements in Uganda

#1 Renovation of five protected springs: This has greatly improved access to, clean water and water points. Human- wildlife conflict has been reduced due to the improved access.

#2 Construction of five community rain water harvest points: Rainwater harvesting points were identified and constructed in five primary schools in the project area. The provision of the water sources has greatly improved sanitation and hygiene in the beneficiary schools.

#3 Water quality assessments for water facilities: JGI, in partnership with the Directorate of Water Development Laboratory (Government of Uganda), conducted an extensive water quality assessment of all main water points in the target project area so as to provide clean and safe water.

#4 Training of Water Management Committees: Water management user committees were established and trained by staff from the District Water Office and the Sub County Community Development Officer of Budongo.

#5 Training of Community Based Artisans: At each of the water sources, two members of the water management user committees were selected as artisans to repair and maintain the water sources. The artisans were also trained in: basic plumbing including repairs of simple system leaks, maintenance, masonry, and proper use and handling of tools and equipped with a set of tools.

#6 Protect and conserve water sources: Tree seedlings have been planted at the protected water springs. The area above the protected spring has also been planted with Paspalum notatum, a creeping grass to aid in reducing surface run-off and system contamination. The tree cover is intended to provide future shade over the water and reduce evaporation from direct exposure to sun during the dry season.

#7 School/community sanitation campaign: Campaigns involve use of local music, dance, drama, talks and videos to raise awareness. This has led to a 50% reduction in poor water and sanitation practices, such as open defecation, and washing clothes and vehicles in water sources and increased the number of schools adopting hand washing facilities.

#8 Water and sanitation sensitization: Trained teachers in creating WASH friendly schools. A WASH-Friendly School is clean, safe, has adequate, well-maintained toilets or latrines for girls and boys and for teachers with water, paper, or other material for anal cleansing; has a place to wash hands with soap/ash and running water after using the latrine; and has enough, safely stored clean drinking water for the school community. The training has equipped teachers with knowledge to integrate lessons on good hygiene practices and water resources conservation into school curriculum, with specific focus on fecal-oral transmission of germs, hand-washing, building hand-washing facilities, latrine use and maintenance, water purification methods and safe drinking water, and water sources protection and conservation.

#9 Awareness materials: Awareness materials with messages on germ transmission, importance of hand washing, sanitation and hygiene practices, and protection of river banks and best practices have been developed and disseminated to community members and schools.

#10 Conduct reviews: Project review in all the villages to assess progress, and to identify success stories, achievements and key challenges were conducted. Notably, was the improved sanitation and hygiene practices among community members.

A healthy ecosystem

These achievements demonstrate the benefits of an integrated systems in improving livelihoods while conserving biodiversity through working hand in hand with the community therefore creating a more sustainable conservation approach.

Photo caption
Photo1: Women from Siiba Village, Masindi Distict, Uganda collecting water from Siiba spring which was rehabilitated through ABCG project. Photo Credit: Brenda Mirembe, JGI. August 2017.
Photo2: Students at Karongo Primary school washing their hands at the newly installed water tank at their school. Photo credit JGI

Many countries in Africa are grappling with food security concerns. Inadequate land use planning, illegal logging, uncontrolled development, and poor farming methods are some of the challenges that countries are dealing with as demand for food rises.

The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) is an important food basket in Tanzania with rich fertile lands, extensive forests and reliable water sources. This area presents numerous opportunities for sustainable and profitable agriculture, as well as biodiversity conservation, as it is also an important wildlife corridor in East Africa.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has been leading two interrelated projects in order to realize the objectives of this area and support the government in meeting its agriculture greening ambition. TNC’s Agriculture Strategy Director for Africa Region, Felix Kamau, presented these initiatives at the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group presentation in Nairobi, Kenya on February 21, 2018. The first initiative, Science for Nature and People Partnership (SNAPP) for SAGCOT, aimed at generating practical decision support tools to help policy-makers and investors avoid risks and guide sustainable agriculture intensification throughout the corridor. The second initiative, the Water, Land and Ecosystem program, supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural focused on laying the foundations for effective landscape planning in the Ihemi Cluster area of SAGCOT.

These initiatives have resulted in a number of decision support tools to guide policy and investment decisions towards environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive agriculture development being developed. Among these tools are:

• Crop Suitability Maps: Maps showing how different crops would perform in different areas within SAGCOT. Twenty-three (23) key crops have been modeled based on rainfall and soil properties viewable at: http://arcg.is/2cbGHRC
• Web-based interactive maps created from analysis of soil and land cover constraints to agricultural intensification using multi-criteria evaluation using 6 variables: The maps can be viewed at: http://arcg.is/2aNbbHN
• Land use and cover change (15 years) analysis report for the SAGCOT region and the degree how this impacts water quality and quantity
• Environmental and social performance investment screen tool for use by SAGCOT Centre to screen agriculture investors: https://tnc.box.com/s/qxfiisxenc4q3can7e8nu5jnj0fzzgur
• Guidelines on wetlands management and gender inclusion and monitoring

Through these tools stakeholders are able to make smart land use management decisions to realize the full potential of the land while protecting it.

Event Resources
Click here to download the presentation slides

Featured Speaker

Felix Kamau is TNC’s Agriculture Strategy Director for Africa Region. He is responsible for driving TNC’s sustainable agriculture intensification strategy for Africa region, working closely with the TNC Global Agriculture team and TNC Africa Conservation Director. Felix joined TNC in July 2013. Prior to joining TNC, Felix worked for the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development in Kenya as the Head of Agricultural Marketing and Agribusiness Development Services Division for 4 years. Prior to that he worked in the same Ministry for 15 years in Agricultural Extension Services Division in various capacities rising to the position of Chief of National Agricultural Extension Services Division, serving in that capacity for 7 years. He has a Masters of Science degree in Agricultural Studies from the University of Queensland (Australia); and a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degree from the University of Nairobi (Kenya). Felix is also trained in Project Development and Management, Strategic leadership, public policy formulation and implementation, and Strategic Negotiation skills. Felix has wide international exposure in agriculture and rural development from his work and study tours he has undertaken in several countries.

For more information, please contact Felix Kamau at fkamau@TNC.org

This event was hosted by the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group in partnership with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as a part of its Nairobi speaker series, which aims to foster information exchange and lessons sharing among cross-sector practitioners. To participate as a featured speaker, please contact Evelyn Namvua at enamvua@abcg.org and view the Guidelines to Speakers here.

Photo caption
Tea seedlings nursery in Njombe region, SAGCOT Corridor, Tanzania. Photo credit: Felix Kamau, TNC

Big cats: predators under threat was the theme for World Wildlife Day 2018 celebrated on March 3. The event put a global spotlight on the world big cats which include the cheetah, jaguar, leopard, lion, puma, snow leopard and tiger.

John Robinson, the Executive Vice President for Conservation and Science at Wildlife Conservation Society looks at some of the threats that these predators face and what we can do to protect the animals in his post Conserving Big Cats Isn’t Easy, But It’s Possible.

Below are excerpts from the post

‘…….big cats all face severe threats. Loss of habitat threatens their survival. The jaguar has lost almost 50 percent of its historical range in Latin America. The lion has lost 75 percent of its range in Africa, and the tiger a stunning 93 percent across Asia.

‘Big Cats are also hunted and killed by people. These killings often result from the threat these top predators pose to both people and their livestock. This is especially a problem where natural habitat is declining or natural prey is depleted. Big cats prey on livestock and — in the case of tigers and lions — can kill people. Retaliatory killings are common in many places as a result.

‘Big cats are likewise sought after for their body parts. Their fur has long been revered, although implementation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has reduced this threat. The hunting of big cats for their teeth, claws, and bones for traditional medicines has led to tiger losses for years — a major threat that has expanded to lions and, most recently, to jaguars.

‘….what can we do about it? Conservationists know that parks and protected areas are key to conserving species populations. Effective management of these protected areas is needed to ensure that habitat remains intact to prevent hunting of prey species and the direct killing of big cats.

‘One invaluable tool is a GPS-based ranger patrol program known as the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART), which is now widely deployed in protected areas globally. In the hands of well-trained rangers, SMART technology has vastly improved their efficiency and effectiveness.

‘Wildlife corridors are needed to allow big cats to travel across the broader landscape. Big cats need a lot of space and protected areas are typically insufficiently large to protect viable populations.

‘Conserving big cats is not easy. But it is possible, and we do know how to do it. It requires that we adequately value big cats, and have the commitment and will to give them space to live their lives.

Read the entire blog article Conserving Big Cats Isn’t Easy, But It’s Possible, March 3, 2018

Photo caption
African lion in wild in Uganda. Photo credit: Julie Larsen Maher/WCS

The Population Reference Bureau recently published an article featuring the Africa Biodiversity Colloborative Groups’ best practices for improving food security and nutrition through integrated approaches. 

“Evaluations of Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) programs have found varying degrees of effectiveness in improving human health and biodiversity outcomes. PHE approaches integrate family planning with other health and environmental interventions, with the intention of addressing the challenges that link all three sectors in a holistic manner.”

ABCG conducted a comprehensive literature review to strengthen its PHE pilot projects and further examine these linkages, the findings were shared during the Africa PHE webinar held in December 2017. The speakers, ABCG’s Global Health Linkages to Biodiversity Conservation: Population Health and Environment working group members, Jimmiel Mandima from African Wildlife Foundation and Nathalie Simoneau from World Wildlife Fund, shared that despite robust studies on the interactions between population, health, and environment, few PHE projects systematically monitor and measure the impacts of nutrition and food security on biodiversity and health outcomes.

“Some projects, however, do show evidence that their work improves biodiversity conservation through activities that promote sustainable agricultural techniques, livelihood diversification, conservation agriculture, and other interventions.”

The literature review makes the following recommendations:
1. Encourage funding of more nested, integrated programs that are transformational and have all-round lasting impacts that improve human well-being
2. Require mandatory systematic monitoring and evaluation that measures the impacts of nutrition and food security on biodiversity and health outcomes
3. Allow for adequate investment in process to establish baselines across the PHE aspects, and participatory clarity among the multiple entities that have to implement the integrated programs
4. Commit to long tem program cycles of up to 10 years and use funding vehicles that are not limited to sectoral silos but rather allow integrated programming

Read the entire post on the Population Reference Bureau website and listen to the webinar recording here: Improving Food Security and Nutrition Through Integrated Approaches

More information about the study is available in the literature review: Exploring Cross-Sector Linkages Between Population, Health, Environment, Nutrition, and Food Security: A Review of Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Happy New Year!

The Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (ABCG) continues to advance understanding of critical biodiversity conservation challenges and their solutions in sub-Saharan Africa by fostering collaborative and adaptive learning opportunities that help practitioners improve, scale and replicate, while generating valuable user-driven knowledge disseminated globally. As such, we strive to apply the best accessible approaches to present practical knowledge to our community of conservation and cross-sector partners.

In 2017, ABCG took a critical look at the face of our collaboration—our interactive website—and invested in redesigning its functionality for a more effective user interface, including enhanced content searching, streamlined user experience, and agile layout. We are delighted to announce our newly redesigned ABCG website!

Our new look clearly presents the Current Issues we’re tacking while maintaining the ability to access our past work spanning a diverse range of conservation challenges over our almost 20 year history. The News and Events pages provide our visitors with up to date information on our implementation progress, publication releases, partner news, upcoming events, past event resources, and other highlights.

Additionally, we’ve refined our searchable database of Resources for greater ease of use. ABCG.org houses a wealth of collectively generated knowledge by ABCG members and partners who produce policy reviews, conduct workshop trainings, catalyze technology development and transfer, and improve upon conservation practices. These resources are shared with cross-sector communities of practice, which include local NGOs, civil society, and government agencies, to enable broader conservation impact across multiple landscapes, and to help avoid the pitfall of “reinventing the wheel”.

Collaboration cultivates the strengths of individual institutions; encouraging peer learning and applying specialized expertise to jointly addressing complex, interconnected conservation challenges in an integrated, multidisciplinary, and systematic manner for results that no one organization could accomplish effectively on its own. This is the strategic advantage of ABCG—a voluntary partnership to achieve substantial impact on a large scale.

By accessing the wide-ranging expertise of our members and their extensive networks throughout sub-Saharan Africa, ABCG is in a unique position to: draw on the best minds and institutions to work together, and enhance the impact of their combined resources; engage the affected community in seeking enduring solutions, and; share evidence-based knowledge with the broader conservation and development community.

We hope you find ABCG.org valuable as a portal, a forum, and resource for innovative conservation solutions. We encourage you to visit and engage with all who are interested in bridging the complex challenges of integrated development and biodiversity conservation.

Resources

Find our printable brochure all about ABCG here.