Posts in category: News & Updates

Protected areas are the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation. It is, however, alarming that only 24% of protected areas have sound management (Leverington F. et al, 2010). This is in the wake of a tremendous increase in the demand for wildlife products, as well as an increase in well-financed, organized and connected wildlife crime. There is therefore need to put the available limited resources to maximum use for best outcome.

On November 15, 2018, as a part of its Washington DC speaker series, the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (ABCG) featured Drew T. Cronin, the Program Manager for the SMART Partnership, who explained the use of the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) for adaptive management of wildlife law enforcement. The SMART approach covers three areas: software, capacity building and site-based protection standards. With a global need to improve protected areas management effectiveness, this approach ensures that the available resources are best deployed in order to give best returns.

The SMART approach employs the use of the SMART tool, which plays a major role in adaptive management including; data collection by ranger patrols, data entry, analysis and report, debriefing and strategic planning. Rangers use this tool to capture data on threats in close to real time and transmit the information to the HQ. This allows the HQ to deploy rangers in response hence mitigating the threat.

According to the presentation, SMART, now the leading tool globally for wildlife law enforcement and protected area monitoring, has been effectively used to improve conservation in various protected areas including; Dja Biosphere, Cameroon, in protecting great apes, the approach has contributed to an increase in patrol efforts by 86% of coverage in 2017. In Kenya, the cyber tracker interface uses icons to represent animals and threats in a SMART configured data model. This improves patrol reporting for all community rangers as well as motivating ranger teams to meet targets. This has resulted in 4 times increase in patrol coverage with a 74% decrease in poaching. In Cambodia’s community managed fishery, SMART helped identify illegal activity hotspots, which was key in reducing fishery infractions by 40% over 3 years. And, in the conservation of tigers in 100+ tiger sites globally.

SMART is an illustrative example of the wide-ranging adoption of an ABCG-supported tool. ABCG was instrumental in scaling adoption of SMART to Africa (SMART was originally developed and piloted in Asia) by developing a global network of trainers, enhancing capacity to implement this adaptive management approach, and expanding the user base for broad application.

As a result of ABCG’s work: 1) SMART has become a standard system for wildlife law enforcement for World Wildlife Fund-US and Wildife Conservation Society, and is used for all of their work in the Congo Basin; 2) The Jane Goodall Institute is using the SMART system to collect data in the Congo’s Tchimpounga Nature Reserve; 3) African Wildlife Foundation field staff in Kenya and Tanzania are providing training on the system, including for use by the Kenya Wildlife Service and for community game scouts in southern Kenya and in Tanzania; and 4) the Gabon and Uganda governments have been trained in the use of the system and have begun using it for law enforcement management.

ABCG’s promotion of the SMART system has enabled the technology to be deployed more rapidly and more widely by broadening knowledge and acceptance for its use within ABCG membership, and by building the capacity of African governments and NGOs.

Current SMART partner members include: Frankfurt Zoological Society, Global Wildlife Conservation, North Carolina Zoo, Panthera, Peace Parks Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Society, Wildlife Protection Solutions, World Wildlife Fund, and Zoological Society of London.

Event resource 

Click here to watch the webinar recording: 

Featured Speaker

Drew Cronin is the Program Manager for the SMART Partnership. Prior to his two years with SMART, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program focused on the drivers and dynamics of bush meat consumption and quantifying the impact of human activities on wildlife. He is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature/SSC Primate Specialist Group, Africa Section, and is also the Interim Coordinator of the Red Colobus Conservation Action Plan. Drew has a Ph.D. in Environmental Science from Drexel University and is based at Wildlife Conservation Society in New York City.

Kimberly Holbrook is Manager of External Affairs, Africa Region at The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and manages TNC’s activities in the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (ABCG). She talks to ABCG about her conservation journey and the importance of collaboration in tackling conservation issues. 

What sparked your conservation interests?
I had always been interested in science and, in particular, biology for as long as I can remember. Early in my life, I got the opportunity to travel to Indonesia and many other countries in Asia. During those travels, I became interested in tropical forest ecosystems and the biodiversity that they support. I still remember the first time that I saw and heard a hornbill flying overhead while walking in a forest in Sumatra, Indonesia. This memory later led me to pursue graduate degrees in biology to understand the important role of hornbills and toucans as avian seed dispersers in tropical forests.

How has your career ladder been?
After completing my PhD, I considered the option of continuing research and becoming a professor, but decided that I would be more satisfied pursuing a career in applied conservation and policy. This led me to apply for and receive a Science & Technology Policy Fellowship through the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, D.C. where I was posted at the United States Department of State for two years. Following the fellowship, I worked for the University of California, Los Angeles as a Senior Research Fellow and then, in 2013, I joined The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to work in the Africa program.

For how long has TNC been a member of ABCG and what are your responsibilities in the collaboration?
TNC’s engagement with ABCG, dates back to 2007 when TNC joined the group. Upon joining TNC’s Africa team, I became responsible for managing our ABCG project and for representing TNC on the ABCG steering committee that includes a member from each of the seven conservation non-governmental organizations.

What activities is TNC tackling in the collaboration?
During the first three years of the current phase of ABCG (2015-2018) we were involved in four activity areas:

Land Use Management: In this activity, we are contributing to the development of spatial planning tools and approaches that can be used by decision makers to develop interventions in land use planning and management. In Gabon, for example, we are providing technical expertise to the government on implementing their land use planning process.

Global Change Impacts: To understand how human responses to climate change indirectly affect biodiversity, we are providing data through field surveys on human adaptive responses to climate change in different countries in Africa and conducting historic and future climate analysis in target countries. Through this activity, ABCG will come up with coping strategies that reduce the indirect negative impacts to biodiversity due to human responses to climate change.

Land and Resource Tenure Rights: We collaborated with the Jane Goodall Institute in Western Tanzania to place greater land rights and resource management authority in the hands of local resource users, thus creating the capacity and the necessary incentives for them to exercise their authority in ways that are consistent with biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of renewable resources.

Global Health Linkages to Biodiversity Conservation: Within the Population, Health and Environment sub task of this activity, our Tuungane Project in western Tanzania helped to build the capacity of the communities and individuals to practice positive behaviour changes to support healthy families, forests and fisheries through the Model Households, Model Villages and Model Farmers approach.

In these next two years (2018-2020) of ABCG’s USAID funding, we are continuing our work in the Land Use Management and Global Change Impact tasks.

What are some of the demonstrated benefits of this partnership to TNC?
Through the ABCG collaboration, TNC has been able to build relationships with stakeholders in Africa and the United States that otherwise would have been challenging. ABCG has supported the dissemination of our work and that of our partners, through its platform and networks, increasing awareness of conservation work in Africa by TNC and others. The knowledge products and approaches that the collaboration has developed has helped influence some of our work and the design of activities.

Would you say that ABCG is achieving its vision?
Yes, ABCG projects are designed to provide evidence and knowledge products that can influence policy and practice. In one of our past activities, we worked on carbon sequestration in partnership with the Northern Rangelands Trust and Syracuse University in Kenya. From the development of a soil carbon sequestration methodology that we did through ABCG, we were able to scale up work on carbon and soil in northern Kenya and Zambia. In the current Global Change Impacts work, we are beginning to see results that have the potential of influencing other areas of work on climate adaptation.

The ability to have different institutions coming together to jointly tackle issues, and to have a wide geographical reach through members and partners’ presence in different locations across Africa, has contributed to a greater understanding of conservation challenges and their solutions that a single organization would not be able to realize on their own.

Meet more ABCG coalition members here: 

Championing for Community Involvement in Conservation: Peter Veit Shares

Conservationist Peter Apell Shares on Integrating Social Development and Environmental Management

Photo: Kimberly Holbrook. Photo credit: Kimberly Holbrook

The ABCG Land Use Management task group has developed methodological approaches for scenario analysis, and guidelines for its application in Africa. This is to help identify how to incorporate equitable and climate-smart alternatives into land use decisions for conservation.

This document, introduces the broad approach that has been applied within four case studies and reviews how this was applied in four African countries: Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Madagascar. Lessons learnt through this process are summarized.

Download the report here: Four African Case Studies Exploring How to Incorporate Biodiversity into Land Use Planning Using Spatial Prioritization and Scenario Analysis

Peter Veit’s interest in nature dates back over 45 years ago. As a young boy he enjoyed interacting with animals and had always thought of a career in conservation. It was this interest that drew him to study animal behaviour, specifically marine mammals (elephant seals, spinner porpoise and humpback whales), for his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

A Student of Dian Fossey
Soon after completing his undergraduate studies, Peter was fortunate to meet a professor who introduced him to Dian Fossey. An opportunity not to be missed, he proceeded to Rwanda and worked as a research assistant at the Karisoke Mountain Gorilla Research Center in the Virunga Volcanoes. Here, he continued studying animal behaviour but this time on mountain gorillas. This unique opportunity of working with Dian, marked one of his career highlights in conservation. Peter considers the Virunga Volcanoes among the most magnificent places that he’s been to!

Peter later served as the Acting Director of the Karisoke Mountain Gorilla Research Center until 1981, when he went back to the United States to study human ecology for his graduate studies at the University of California, Davis. Upon completion of his graduate studies, he won a Fulbright scholarship that saw him spend over a year in Sierra Leone.

From an early age, Peter has always been discouraged by fortress conservation, an approach where land is set aside for specific biodiversity services and people are not allowed to use their traditional land. His interests have been in community-based conservation. It is this interest that has shaped most of his conservation career. In this approach, local people play a key role in protecting their own natural resources while they continue to enjoy the cultural and livelihood benefits that are found in nature.

In 1988, and with vast experience and knowledge in community based natural resource management, he joined the World Resources Institute (WRI). At WRI, he has been involved in projects that focus on community conservation and development issues in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Peter is currently the Director of the Land and Resource Rights Initiative, this Initiative seeks to strengthen land tenure and natural resource rights of rural people and communities.

Involvement with ABCG
Peter is among the founding group of conservationists that came together to form the Africa Biodiversity Collaboration Group (ABCG) in the late 1990s. Recognising that there was very little collaboration that existed among conservation professionals, ABCG was initiated as a vehicle that would enable conservationists to come together and discuss priority issues, while exploring areas where they can pull resources together and jointly address issues for greater impact. He also represents WRI on the ABCG steering committee team that is charged with providing strategic guidance and direction of the group.

His expertise in community-based conservation and development contributed to the formalization of the ABCG Land and Resource Tenure Rights working group that he led from 2015 to 2018. This working group developed and tested various strategies that place greater land and resource management authority in the hands of local resource users, creating incentives for them to exercise their power in ways that are consistent with biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of renewable resources.

This ABCG working group has successfully implemented strategies that are helping local communities to secure and manage their traditional lands. For example, in the Kabobo Wildlife Reserve, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the group has successfully supported the Tanganyika Provincial Government in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to gazette this Reserve, and engaged the local community to develop and implement a co-management model of the reserve. In Western and Southern Tanzania, ABCG has created favourable conditions for the recognition of community and customary rights over land and natural resources through activities such as issuance of individual and group Certificates of Customary Right of Occupancy.

As ABCG embarks on a new project phase (2019-2020), he sees many new opportunities that are emerging especially in the area of Community Based Forestry Management (CBFM), where the community actively takes part in managing the forest. This has been informed by activities carried out in the previous phase of ABCG which looked at community forestry in Tanzania and other areas, providing evidence on the need to do more. ABCG members have committed to prioritize CBFM in the new phase, which he looks forward to being part of.

Peter notes that a key achievement for ABCG has been to initiate the collaboration that we currently see among major conservation organizations working in Africa. Something that wasn’t there in the past. Additionally, ABCG has also brought to the front important conservation issues such as Freshwater Conservation and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, Family Planning, and Smart Law Enforcement, that weren’t prioritized in the past.

The value of bringing diverse insights and partnering together has greatly been appreciated by ABCG members and partners through the years. Peter has witnessed this, and more so the ability to achieve greater impact through the coalition’s activities. He sees the need to further bring together multi-sectoral actors to work together in conservation issues, and has been championing the dialogue on land rights issues to land rights organizations that is just beginning.

Meet more ABCG coalition members here: 

Conservationist Peter Apell Shares on Integrating Social Development and Environmental Management

Conservationist Michelle Wieland Talks of the Importance of Community Engagement in Protecting Biodiversity

Photo: Peter Veit. Photo Credit: ABCG

Illegal wildlife crime continues to pose serious threats to wildlife populations. It is organized wildlife crime that strengthens criminal networks, poses risks to peace and security, and threatens nature-based tourism and the communities which depend on it. It has contributed to the decline of many wildlife populations, and Central Africa has not been spared, the forest elephant is especially in danger.

Central Africa has experienced a 62% forest elephant decline between 2002 and 2011 due to commercial poaching. This gloomy situation doesn’t stop there, it has been accelerating over the years with cumulative losses of up to 90% in some landscapes in the region between 2011 and 2015.

‘The top 3 largest ivory seizures in Cameroon occurred in the past 2 years totaling more than 500 ivory tusks. With the current rate, local or even national extinctions of forest elephant populations are expected within the next 5 to 10 years’ said Alain Ononino, Policy Lead for the Central Africa Wildlife Crime Programme at the World Wide Fund (WWF), at an Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group hosted presentation on February 01, 2019.

A New and Holistic Approach to Fight Poaching

WWF has been working on piecemeal approaches to fight illegal wildlife crime such as providing technical and financial support to the wildlife agents to carryout patrols that does not adequately address the problem. The numerous challenges in fighting illegal wildlife crime, and the alarming number of animals being poached, necessitate a new kind of thinking to fight illegal wildlife crime. Further, there is still a significant high elephant population in the central Africa region that need protection. With this in mind, WWF is now shifting its approach in its anti-poaching and law enforcement efforts, from the current response to a more holistic approach. In this new way of working, WWF is working on holistic approach that involves working simultaneously on six pillars to realize zero poaching. These six pillars include: Assessment, Technology, Capacity, Community, Prosecution and Cooperation.

For more on these pillars, click below to watch the presentation webinar recording:

Featured Speaker

Alain Ononino is a Cameroonian lawyer who started his career in wildlife law enforcement support and the fight against corruption in 2007 with The Last Great Ape Organization (LAGA). After seven years with LAGA, he joined WWF as the Law Enforcement Coordinator for Cameroon and is currently the Policy Lead for the Central Africa Wildlife Crime Programme.

This event was hosted by The Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group as a part of its Washington DC 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.

‘Indigenous people and other rural communities inhabit more than 50 percent of the world’s land, across all continents except Antarctica. Their stewardship of Earth’s natural resources supports as many as 2.5 billion people with food, water, fuelwood and other life essentials. Less well-known, but also vitally important, is the role of community land in global efforts to avoid runaway climate change and achieve sustainable development. Of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) endorsed by the world’s governments, five directly address the role of land in securing humanity’s future, and three specifically call for securing community land rights. Sustainable land use, by providing a cost-effective way to sequester carbon dioxide, also offers huge climate benefits. It is no exaggeration that achieving both SDG 13 on climate action and national commitments under the Paris Agreement of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change depends in large part on better land stewardship.

‘Yet despite this global imperative, communities’ land rights are being undercut. Globally, national laws recognize only 10 percent of land as belonging to communities, with another 8 percent designated for their use. Even less is registered and titled to communities. In Africa, Latin America and Asia, many countries neither recognize community land nor adequately protect customary tenure systems handed down through generations…

‘Historically, community land covered all or most of the land area of many countries. Today, more than 50 percent of the world’s territory still remains in community hands, with the greatest amount in Africa.
Land and its natural resources are critical assets for rural communities and indigenous peoples, and central to developing country efforts to achieve many SDGs. Community land delivers food, water, fuelwood, medicinal plants and other critical resources, while providing inhabitants with security, status, social identity and a safety net.

‘Most community land around the world is held under customary tenure systems. These traditional institutions and customs historically provided communities with tenure security. But growing threats from outside these communities are leading to insecurity and loss of land.

‘Illegal logging is rampant in many heavily forested countries like Brazil, while land acquisitions for economic development purposes are on the rise around the world. Competition for land is intensifying as global demand rise for foods, fuels, minerals, fibers, wood products and other products. In many countries, companies, their investors and powerful local political and economic elites are acquiring land with government support and securing it for long periods of time. At the same time, customary tenure systems are weakening and no longer able to safeguard community land.

Land Tenure and Climate Mitigation: A Golden Opportunity
‘At a global level, one of the greatest benefits of securing community lands is their enormous potential for climate mitigation. By sequestering and storing carbon, managed forests and other landscapes support progress on SDG 13. A quarter of all GHG emissions comes from deforestation and other land use changes, although the rate varies widely across regions. For example, converting forests to farmland and other uses account for almost half of Latin America’s total emissions.

‘Given the intensifying destruction caused by climate change impacts, securing community land for climate mitigation is a low-cost, high-benefit investment…

‘There is a strong and compelling environment and development case to be made for securing community lands. Given the significant local, national and global benefits to be gained, making community land rights a priority agenda item offers a low-cost, high-reward investment for developing country governments and their development partners.

‘While each country has its own approach and unique circumstances for securing community lands, some important common measures can and must be introduced wherever they are absent. In particular, governments should prioritize:

• Establishing strong community land rights laws. Statutory laws that do not adequately protect community land rights should be reformed or replaced by new supportive legislation. For instance, the laws in Bolivia and Colombia recognize indigenous land rights, but do not provide indigenous peoples with sufficient legal protections.
• Establishing clear community land formalization procedures. Legislation and implementing regulations should provide a clear, accessible procedure for communities to register and document their land rights. Governments should simplify overly complex formalization procedures, amend steps that impose difficult burdens, and provide responsible agencies with the human and financial resources needed to document and protect all community lands.
• Leveling the playing field between communities and companies. Governments should strengthen monitoring and oversight of companies with land-based operations, and require companies to receive the full, free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of affected communities. In addition, governments should ensure that industrial natural resource concessions are not allocated on community lands while applications for community land titles are pending.

‘If and when community lands across the world are properly secured, countries can accelerate progress on many SDGs as well as their climate targets. Given the looming threat posed to both environmental and development progress by climate change, the time to secure these lands is now.’

Read the entire commentary: Land Matters: How Securing Community Land Rights Can Slow Climate Change and Accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals, by Peter Veit, Director, Land and Resource Rights Initiative, World Resources Institute

Read more on ABCG’s work on Land and Resource Tenure Rights

Photo: Participatory Land Use by ABCG

“The Kilombero Cluster supports a wide range of important global biological diversity and is regarded as an ecological bank with its abundant natural resources, including wetlands, wildlife, fertile soils, forests and water catchment areas. It inhabits the Kilombero Valley Flood Plain, a World Heritage site, which is one of Africa’s largest river basins joining the Great Ruaha, Rufiji and Luwegu rivers. Further, Kilombero Ramsar Site, Teak forests, Udzungwa Mountains National Parks, Selous Game Reserves, and Kilombero Game Controlled Area that serves as a wildlife corridor between the Selous Game Reserve and, Mikumi and Udzungwa National Parks, are also part of the Kilombero Cluster.

“Due to its immense potential productivity, the Cluster also forms part of the Southern Agricultural Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT). Presence of these attractive natural resources, protected resources, fertile land, water resources, extensive grazing land, reliable rains and availability of large-scale plantations have attracted large concentrations of both human being and livestock. This multi-layered resource endowment scenario calls for effective planning to enable sustainable utilization of resources and the avoidance of conflicts. Land use planning, which also involves issuance of customary certificates of right of occupancy (CCROs), provides a foundation for tenure security, equity and sustainable resource use and management.

“Hot investment areas, especially the SAGCOT region, are attracting different investment interests in the agriculture, livestock, wildlife and tourism sectors. While SAGCOT intends to bring up much of the farmland into commercial production for regional and international markets, the same zone is known for containing rich biodiversity that requires integrative planning for facilitating the provision of ecosystem services to the agricultural industry and diversification of production activities. For instance, the Kilombero cluster of SAGCOT in Morogoro is so congested with contesting issues of land administration, environmental and biodiversity conservation that it requires integrative and coordinated planning by all stakeholders at all levels.

“Given the resource use pressure and availability of so many actors on land use planning, administration and management in the Kilombero Cluster, an in-depth analysis of the status of land use planning, land tenure administration and management in the area was required. The National Land Use Planning Commission in collaboration with the African Wildlife Foundation undertook a detailed survey of land tenure status, land use planning, administration and management in Mngeta Corridor and Udzungwa-Magombera landscapes.

“The survey documented land tenure status, socio-economic and biodiversity profiles in the Mngeta Corridor and Udzungwa-Magombera landscapes. It underscored the importance of land use planning, implementation and management as a key tool for natural resources use and conflict management in the two clusters. Results of these documentations will be used for stakeholders’ dialogue to address land and natural resources management challenges, sensitize the public on the importance of tenure security (both individual and group CCROs) and recognition of land use planning, administration and management as an effective tool for coordination and sustainable landscape management within the Kilombero Cluster.

Download the report here: Status of Land Use Planning, Land Tenure and Biodiversity Conservation: A Focus of Udzungwa-Magombera-Selous Landscape and Mngeta Corridor in Kilombero District

Photo1: Protected areas and wildlife corridor in the landscapes. Photo credit: Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, 2009
Photo2: Protected Forest Reserve (Kilombero NR) (left) and encroached Forest Reserve-Namwai Forest Reserve in Ihenga Village (right).

The Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group speaker series aim to foster information exchange and lessons sharing among cross-sector practitioners. As part of this series, on November 13, 2018, at the African Wildlife Foundation, Nairobi, Matthew Lewis, Regional Wildlife Program Director, Conservation International, discussed how Conservation International is working in northern Kenya to promote peace and security, mitigate human-wildlife conflict, and create economic incentives to increase community tolerance of species like elephant that cause high levels of human-wildlife conflict.

One key principle that Conservation International uses in their approach that Lewis shared during the presentation was the use of empathy. By using empathy in their work, they are able to relate to and address the numerous confounding factors that make coexistence between people and nature more of a dream than a reality in many places, especially in remote rural areas like northern Kenya. By being more in tune and understanding of the needs of the community, Conservation International applies a holistic approach to ensure that the community and wildlife exist in harmony.

This holistic conservation approach has contributed to the partnership of Conservation International, Northern Rangelands Trust and the Namunyak Wildlife Conservancy that has enabled community-based rangers to establish peace and security while combating poaching, expanded infrastructure to support nature-based tourism to create jobs and economic incentives for conservation, and helped establish the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary to care for elephants impacted by human-wildlife conflict and poaching to allow communities to build a closer tie to their elephant neighbors.

The event allowed practitioners to hear about good conservation models and exchange ideas that would enable the evaluation of similar models to ensure that communities and nature continue to live in harmony.

Feature Speaker 

Matthew Lewis is a wildlife biologist with many years of experience in community-based conservation approaches in Africa and worldwide. Beginning his career as a volunteer agroforestry extensionist with the US Peace Corps in Kenya in 1995, he worked on wildlife conservation in North America, Asia and Africa prior to joining Conservation International as the Africa Division Regional Wildlife Program Director in 2018. Matthew is a member of the IUCN Sustainable Use and Livelihoods (SULi) Specialist Group and the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society.