GWP's Latest: GWP in the Guardian, restoring Malawi's Shire River Basin, Communities of Practices news

GWP NEWSLETTER | APRIL 2019

Dear Colleagues,

The theme of this year’s Earth Day, celebrated last week, is Protect our Species , which is the core of what we are all trying to achieve. At the Global Environment Facility (GEF) -funded Global Wildlife Program (GWP) we have continued to work with governments, communities, and our partners to deliver results for wildlife conservation and sustainable development.

In January, a conference on nature-based tourism was organized in Nepal where experts from around the world discussed how to develop concession programs and increase partnerships with the private sector. More governments are being convinced that their national parks not only protect species but also support economic development through sustainable tourism activities. This is an important theme that the GWP will continue to develop in the future as it expands its Nature-Based Tourism Community of Practice . The GWP also participated in the Women in Nature Network (WiNN) conference in India that showcased inspiring stories of women who are exploring innovative ways to save species. More about this conference can be read in the blog co-authored by GWP Program Manager Claudia Sobrevila.

On World Wildlife Day in March, the GWP and the GEF were featured in a special insert that went out in the Guardian newspaper and in this online campaign .

The Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) Community of Practice held a training in Bangkok attended by 40 participants from 12 countries. We hope to scale up these trainings across regions. Many of the recent webinars organized by the GWP have featured important topics on innovative technology, governance, and anti-money laundering to combat illegal wildlife crime. Stay tuned for webinars on SMART monitoring and quantifying the costs of environmental crimes over the next two months.

We have also been preparing the second phase of the GWP to officially submit to the GEF. We hope to share additional details about the second phase soon. For any inquiries, please reach out to gwp-info@worldbank.org.

Finally, we would like to send our heartfelt condolences to our colleagues in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe who were affected by the recent hurricanes and to the citizens of Sri Lanka for the tragic attack that killed so many people. As you may have heard, the CITES CoP18, originally scheduled to take place from May 23 – June 3 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, has been postponed .

Warm Regards, The GWP Team

GWP featured in the Guardian on World Wildlife Day

The GWP and the GEF sponsored content highlighting the illegal wildlife trade in a supplement published alongside the Guardian newspaper in honor of World Wildlife Day in March. Our article: Joining forces to halt poaching and trafficking across Africa and Asia had one of the biggest exposures in the campaign on page 3.

The supplement was also distributed at the UN Environment Assembly in early March and will be made available at the CITES CoP.

The e-Print version of the campaign can be found here.

Our article and campaign page also appears on the Global Cause website, in association with Media Planet, which can be seen here through August.

The full Global Cause online campaign can be seen here.

Video: Restoring Malawi’s Shire River Basin

Malawi faces an environmental cycle of decline and degradation. In collaboration with the World Bank and the GWP, the government of Malawi is executing a project that improves park management, promotes nature-based tourism, and reduces the threats to deforestation.

Watch the video

Community-based forestry in Malawi will soon bear fruit

Through community-based forest management mechanisms, the World Bank is helping the government of Malawi to diversify livelihoods of local communities in order to reduce deforestation and help reduce human-wildlife conflict. Read this blog by GWP team member Hasita Bhammar to learn more.

Read the blog

Women in nature conservation: a win-WiNN

Women are leading conservation projects to protect species and help communities. However, they lack mentorship opportunities and forums to share their ideas with one another. GWP Program Manager Claudia Sobrevila and Leeanne Alonso, IFC biodiversity and project compliance specialist, helped kick-start Women in Nature Network (WiNN) chapters around the world. These chapters host networking events and promote knowledge sharing avenues for women who are passionate about conservation.

Learn about WiNN in Claudia & Leeanne's blog

Update on GWP's Community of Practices (CoP)

Nature-Based Tourism CoP:

As part of the GWP we have developed a nature-based tourism community of practice (NBT CoP). Check out the latest newsletter highlighting the activities of this internal community.

Read the latest NBT newsletter

Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) CoP:

HWC mitigation training for Asian elephant range countries

Through its partnership with the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) HWC Task Force, the GWP is developing a series of specialized training courses on HWC. A pilot three-day training course on human-elephant conflict (HEC) mitigation took place in Bangkok in February hosted by the Asia Protected Areas Partnership and the IUCN Asia Regional Office.

HEC is becoming the most urgent threat to Asian elephants in all of the 13 countries in which the species survives. It occurs in particular at the edges of, and along corridors between, protected areas. If not addressed, HEC seriously undermines support for protected areas and wider biodiversity conservation agendas. In many places, there have been retaliatory killings and a backlash against conservation efforts. The governments of Asian elephant range countries are under great pressure to address this complex issue, for which solutions are very difficult to find.

The event was attended by around 40 officials from 12 Asian nations responsible for leading HEC mitigation. The course was taught by Alexandra Zimmerman, Chair of the IUCN SSC HWC Task Force, and four members of that task force and IUCN’s SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group. It covered understanding and managing conflicts, including essentials of analyzing and understanding the complexities of HWCs, working with communities and human behavior change, conflict mediation and negotiation, stakeholder dialogue, ecology and behavior of elephants in conflict landscapes, theory of change planning, damage prevention methods, and case study work with the participants’ own experiences from their countries.

The GWP is developing further courses on HWC in collaboration with IUCN tailored to different geographic and species context. Watch this website for upcoming trainings.