A brighter future for people and wildlife: Steering Committee of the Sustainable Wildlife Management programme

The Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme, an innovative programme that works together with governments and local communities to conserve wildlife, protect ecosystems and enhance food security, held its Steering Committee meeting and took stock of the status of implementation in the pilot countries.

Participating in the meeting, FAO Brussels Director Rodrigo de Lapuerta highlighted the trifold focus of the programme on nature, people and livelihoods as a tripartite approach to sustainability. “We cannot guarantee its success, if we do not consider all three at the same time”, he said.

Organisation for African Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) Assistant Secretary-General for the Environment and Climate Action, Cristelle Pratt, reiterated the importance of the enabling environment for the SWM “as without it implementation becomes challenging”. She underlined the large potential of the programme outside of the current 13 pilot countries and looked forward to a wider implementation of the project across the globe.

EU Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO) Team Leader Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Philippe Mayaux, emphasized the programme as “essential to link food security and biodiversity conservation which is fully in line with the European Commission’s Biodiversity Strategy and the Green Deal”.Mayaux also made a reference to the recently released SWM white paper and policy brief.

FAO’s Director of Forestry, Mette Wilkie, took the floor and made a special point about how “COVID-19 leads us to rethink how we relate with ecosystems and the importance of focusing on actions and promote better practices, with an approach to reduce wild meat consumption through behavioral changes and management of zoonotic diseases”.

The programme, in its third year of implementation, is a major OACPS initiative implemented by a dynamic consortium of partners including FAO, the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). It is funded by the European Union with co-funding from the French Global Environment Facility.