Dear GWP Friends and Colleagues, | |
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Last month, the GWP hosted its annual conference in Panama. The annual conference is a catalytic event each year, with new ideas and knowledge shared across the program. As the platform continues to evolve, now with GEF-6, 7 and 8 projects, valuable lessons are being shared and carried forward. GEF-7 projects are building on the experiences of GEF-6 projects that are complete or nearing completion, while new GEF-8 projects are able to integrate this knowledge from the outset. You can read more about the conference below and on our website.
As we mark World Wildlife Day, check out our online content for the day, including a recorded message by World Bank Senior Managing Director Axel Von Trostsenburg and a feature story from one of our South Africa GWP projects. Also, we have released a new guidance note featuring insights on sustainable solutions for human-elephant conflict from Africa, while our Legacy Webinar series highlights the successes of recently concluded projects in Zambia, Malawi, and Indonesia.
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Warm regards,
The GWP Coordination Team
World Bank
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GWP updates and resources | |
100+ Stakeholders Gather for Annual Conference in Panama | |
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In January, the Global Wildlife Program kicked off the year by gathering more than 100 representatives from our projects in 30 countries for the annual conference in Panama City, Panama. Attendees were welcomed by World Bank Country Manager Joelle Dehasse and Hannah Fairbank, Senior Biodiversity Specialist from the GEF Secretariat. Panama’s Minister of the Environment, His Excellency Juan Carlos Navarro, opened the conference with an inspirational speech describing how the country’s long term economic prosperity is linked to the value of its nature and wildlife. The conference unfolded over five days with participants across Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean sharing their ideas and experiences, challenges and practical solutions for human-wildlife coexistence, wildlife-based economies and combating illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade.
There were panels on topics from transboundary collaboration to communications, and participants heard lightening-style presentations from their colleagues about good practices in areas like community and cross-sector partnerships, and capacity building to reduce illegal wildlife trade. There were in-depth sessions featuring experts in innovative financial mechanisms, professionalizing ranger workforces, and anti-money laundering. Partners from eleven conservation and development organizations held interactive roundtables sharing the latest knowledge, tools, and opportunities covering topics from nature-based tourism, monitoring big cats via real-time satellite data, ecosystem restoration, and collaborative management partnerships, to creating campaigns that inform the public on conservation messaging. It was also the first time future knowledge activities were co-designed with the GWP community.
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Opening remarks by (left to right) His Excellency Juan Carlos Navarro, Minister of Environment, Panama; Ricardo Moreno, CEO of Yaguará Panama Foundation (Executing Agency of the GEF-7 GWP Panama project); Joelle Dehasse, World Bank Country Manager for Panama; Hannah Fairbank, Senior Biodiversity Specialist, GEF Secretariat; and Lisa Farroway, Program Manager, GWP, World Bank, set an energizing tone for the conference. | |
Attendees learned about practical and successful solutions from their colleagues in the lightning-style Best Practices Showcase. | |
Throughout the week, attendees had the opportunity to share ideas and give input on future offerings of the Program. | |
See a special story Panama‘s TV Noticitas did about our group’s visit to the Soberanía National Park and read more about the annual conference. | |
Celebrating World Wildlife Day on March 3rd
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Each year on March 3rd, World Wildlife Day emphasizes the importance of biodiversity for healthy ecosystems and economies. The theme this year, “Wildlife Conservation Finance: Investing in People and Planet”, is an opportunity to highlight some of the innovative financing solutions underway.
In a message for CITES, World Bank Senior Managing Director Axel Van Trotsenberg discusses how investing in nature is not just good for the environment, but essential for the economy. GWP Program Manager Lisa Farroway also shares a message about the compelling investment case for wildlife conservation. Check out our latest feature story on how South Africa, with support from the GWP, is strengthening the rural economy and creating jobs by investing in nature and wildlife conservation.
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Feature Story
South Africa’s Wildlife Economy Generates Jobs for Rural Communities
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HEC Guidance Note offers sustainable solutions from Africa | |
New report highlights experiences and scalable local solutions applied across Africa in response to growing pressures from human-elephant conflict (HEC)
The report presents the insights shared by 20 countries in Africa during a regional workshop held in Kenya in partnership with the Elephant Protection Initiative Foundation. The workshop followed a Global Wildlife Program survey of governments that found human-elephant conflict is most pronounced in Africa -- seen as a major concern for 73% of African governments and perceived as increasing in 79% of those countries. Human-elephant conflict is a particular challenge, driven by habitat degradation, competition for resources, and climate change that push elephants and humans closer together, increasing consequences for both.
The report reveals the shifting status of key challenges impeding human-elephant conflict. Countries report strong progress to build political will, develop national policies and strengthen cross-sector coordination. But challenges like limited access to equipment to mitigate conflict, insufficient financial resources to implement policies, and lack of economic opportunities for local communities are increasing.
It also highlights promising local solutions that are categorized by their levels of impact and feasibility along with ideas for how to improve their success. Encouragingly, nearly three quarters of solutions were categorized as being high impact and high feasibility at some locations. This implies countries in Africa have local solutions that are successfully reducing conflict at hotspot sites that offer good potential for replication and scaling up. For instance, high impact-high feasibility solutions include beehive fences that serve as both a deterrent and additional source of income, early warning technologies, and community education that fosters a sense of stewardship.
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GWP Asia projects meet in Cambodia to catalyze inclusive livelihoods and gender mainstreaming in wildlife conservation | |
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Nine GWP countries in Asia came together for a workshop to shed light on their specific needs around economic livelihoods and gender. Key takeaways from the workshop included integrating gender inclusion into community livelihoods and the importance of benefit sharing, private sector partnerships, rigorous baselining, and considerations for sustainable protected area tourism development.
In Asia, GWP projects are engaging communities in income-generating livelihoods across sectors that support conservation and promote wildlife-based economies, with special attention to women, youth, and socially marginalized groups. By taking gender-responsive actions toward meaningful participation of women in project activities and to elevating them to decision-making positions within their communities, GWP projects work to close the gender gap in conservation and natural resource management.
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What's new from GWP projects and partners | |
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CITES 78th Standing Committee meeting sharpens focus before COP20
A record-breaking number of participants and observers gathered in Geneva the first week of February for discussions that revealed how Parties have progressed in the conservation, regulation of trade, combating wildlife crime, and strengthening the use, sustainability, legality and traceability of trade in CITES-listed species. This was the final meeting of the Committee before CITES COP20 in November 2025, hosted by Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
GWP and ICCWC Host Side Events
The GWP team from the World Bank contributed to two side events with the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC). They were on global collaboration and the importance of data in combating wildlife trafficking. The team profiled how national GWP projects are helping governments enhance their responses to illegal wildlife trade, apply ICCWC tools, and build synergies with the national implementation of CITES.
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The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) has released two major reports highlighting how community-led conservation makes a real difference for migratory species worldwide.
Discover 10 key guiding principles for successful community participation and see how real-world initiatives in Central Asia are helping protect or ensure sustainable use of iconic regional species.
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Lessons in Combating Poaching | |
This knowledge exchange brought together GWP projects and partners for a discussion on effective site-level anti-poaching activities and the factors underpinning conservation successes. It includes case studies and the preliminary results of the GWP’s global survey on lessons learned in combating poaching. | |
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The Legacy Webinar Series showcases the impact of recently closed GWP projects across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Lessons from Landscape Management and Community Engagement in Malawi and Zambia
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Hear how Zambia and Malawi projects brought benefits to targeted rural communities through improved landscape management, human-wildlife conflict mitigation, and conservation of key biodiversity areas. | |
Lessons from Combating Illegal and Unsustainable Trade in Endangered Species in Indonesia | |
GWP Indonesia shares how this project removed the gaps to accomplishing the long-term protection key wildlife species in Indonesia and East and Southeast Asia, by ensuring legal wildlife trade is ecologically and economically sustainable, while reducing the scale and impact of wildlife trafficking. | |
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Details and registration for these GWP webinars will be shared by email. If someone forwarded this message and you would like to join our distribution list, sign up here.
Past GWP Webinars can be found here and summaries of Knowledge Events here.
To receive regular updates about virtual events email:
gwp-info@worldbank.org
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Follow the #GlobalWildlifeProgram on social media and @WBG_Environment on X: | |
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This newsletter is published by the GWP Coordination Team
We welcome your submissions of news, events, and publications at
gwp-info@worldbank.org
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