Future of sustainable wildlife management: CITES considers links to post-2020 biodiversity framework

These findings are also key to support the input into the first meeting of the Open-ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework that will convene from 27-30^th August 2019, in Nairobi, Kenya, to advance preparations for the development of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

To assist the Parties, the outcomes of a workshop held in June in Cambridge under the auspices of the Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management (CPW)¹ have been made available as a CITES Information Document.

The June workshop had brought together over 40 participants from different organisations, including many CPW partners (i.e. CBD Secretariat, CITES Secretariat, CMS Secretariat, TRAFFIC, IIED, CIFOR, FAO, IUCN, CIC, UN Environment, OIE), Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) partners (FFI, Birdlife, RSPB, BTO, University of Cambridge, Tropical Biology Association, UNEP-WCMC, IUCN, and TRAFFIC), and other organisations (WWF, University of Oxford, IUCN HWC Task Force).

Its aim was to facilitate the exchange of information on sustainable wildlife management (SWM); help inform the CPW response to the development of a Post-2020 biodiversity framework and the role of sustainable wildlife management; and help consolidate views from the participating organisations on how best to integrate wildlife related aspects in developing a new framework.

Experiences and progress of various organisations on sustainable wildlife² management were shared, in the following areas: wildlife, food security and livelihoods; wildlife offtake, harvesting, hunting and trade; and human-wildlife-livestock interface. The participants worked on formulating the 2050 vision in the context of SWM, together with identifying the major drivers of biodiversity loss of particular relevance to SWM, and ways to address these. The workshop emphasised several important challenged to achieving SWM, which were subsequently discussed. These included:

• Tackling the narrative of consumer demand and SWM: sustainable consumption vs reduction of demand
• Benefits and costs of SWM along the value chains, for people living with wildlife and for other users (which may be disadvantaged due to the poor distribution of benefits)
• SWM/wildlife narrative and the topics of circular economy, green economy, natural capital, sustainable consumption and production.

On the subject of the elements of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, the workshop focussed primarily around the wildlife use and trade target(s), recognising wildlife trade and use as an issue at the nexus of today’s most pressing conservation and development concerns linked to  human use of natural resources.  

The participants shared an overall consensus on the need for an expression of one or more targets concerning wildlife use and trade. We sincerely hope that the post 2020 global biodiversity framework will positively consider wording as suggested by this valuable workshop."

Roland Melisch, Vice-Chair of CPW and Senior Director Africa and Europe at TRAFFIC

The participants of the workshop proposed that target(s) concerning wildlife use and trade could be proposed, to a following effect:

• By 2030, legal use and trade of wild fauna and flora at sustainable levels enhances the conservation of biodiversity and the benefits to human well-being;
• By 2030, the pressure of illegal and unsustainable use and trade in wild fauna and flora is reduced, contributing to the conservation of biodiversity and human well-being.

A set of possible ways to measure such targets was discussed, including the monitoring of existing CITES implementation progress, but beyond it, measuring the implementation of best practice guidelines, such as the FairWild Standard, for key wild plant species value chains, the application of the CBD Voluntary Guidelines for a sustainable wild meat sector (Dec 14/7) to selected species, as well as reductions in: the unauthorised timber exports from countries with significant illegal trade in high conservation value forests, the illegal trade in elephants, rhinos and tiger products, as well as the risk of overexploitation for “high risk” shark species in trade, among others.

The Secretary of the CPW, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Kristina Rodina welcomed the opportunity to contribute the Partnership’s collective knowledge and experience in development of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. “The CPW members have differing but complimentary and substantive mandates and programmes on the sustainable use and conservation of wildlife resource. This is a truly unique Partnership opportunity to advance the agenda on sustainable wildlife management beyond 2020” she added.

During the CITES side event, the workshop’s outcomes helped to answer key questions whose answers will help shape the input from CITES into development of the post-2020 Strategic Framework.

UPDATE on 29th August 2019: