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The resumed sessions of the twenty-fourth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 24), the third meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI 3) and the third meeting of the Open-ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (WG2020-3), are currently taking place from 14-29 March 2022, at the International Conference Center Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland.
WWF is negotiating for sustainable conservation financing and calling on governments to secure a global biodiversity plan that is just as ambitious and comprehensive as the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Efforts to reverse biodiversity loss will only be successful if urgent action is taken to transform financial flows to ensure they safeguard rather than destroy nature.
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The shocks to the tourism sector resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic show how vulnerable a conservation model that is based on tourism can be, putting jobs and conservation efforts at risk. These shocks come on top of the pressures of illegal wildlife trade, which is undermining the many successful community conservation initiatives that have thrived in Southern and Eastern Africa over the past 30 years, reducing wildlife populations, but also the income that supplements the livelihoods of Africa’s extensive rural populations.
While the tourism sector will undoubtedly continue to be a key driver for conservation, more resilient and sustainable wildlife economies are needed to be developed to diversify community income beyond only one or two primary streams, and thus build the resilience of rural people and wildlife to potential environmental, climatic, global health and economic shocks.
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The WWF Beyond Tourism initiatives is geared towards seeking new revenue models that enable both the professional conservation sector and communities to derive income from wildlife, and manage their natural resources sustainably. Examples of this are conservation friendly businesses (e.g. conservation agriculture, beekeeping; and holistic rangeland management based on improved cattle breeds); certification schemes (e.g. Wildlife Friendly, FSC, FairWild); payment for ecosystem services schemes (e.g. carbon credits); and innovative finance solutions such as impact investing (e.g. Rhino Impact Bond) and Wildlife Credits. Our overall ambition is to develop a conservation-finance model that is less dependent on tourism and hunting.
The Africa Beyond Tourism initiative is technically supported by the WWF Wildlife and Markets Practices, and in particular, the Nature Pays Hub, with financial support provided by WWF Germany and WWF UK.
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A landmark study on alternative financing options was commissioned by Luc Hoffman Institute and WWF in 2019.
While this and other studies mentioned below revealed a number of models and options that challenge the current status quo, there are in reality only a limited number of operational, mostly locally relevant models that demonstrate the potential for upscaling.
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Additionally, a more detailed viability analysis was undertaken in partnership with the Nelson Mandela CARMa-Africa program, with case studies on a range of potential solutions.
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Testing And Piloting: New Start-ups
A number of WWF programmes are testing and developing models for nature-based economic and livelihood opportunities. These practical landscape-level test-cases will inform the true potential for ‘beyond tourism’ nature-based. For example, feasibility studies for carbon credit schemes and non-timber products are being launched for both SOKNOT and Ruvuma landscapes, and the Virunga landscape is testing a sustainable bio trade approach.
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Wildlife Credits
WWF Namibia and WWF Kenya are developing and testing the model of Wildlife Credits as a means of providing cash incentives for community contributions to wildlife and nature management. Wildlife credits is already operational in Namibia, but we are currently starting to test it in the SOKNOT landscape in Kenya.
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For conservation to be effective, local communities must benefit from conservation efforts. This is the understanding at the heart of WWF’s Nature Pays initiative, which helps communities set up and run small enterprises that support conservation, including activities such as ecotourism and handicraft production.
Communities organized around sustainable enterprises are powerful allies for conservation. By providing communities with a long-term economic benefit, they can build support for conservation, while providing positive outcomes for both people and nature.
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The Innovation Challenge
The Beyond Tourism Innovation Challenge, led by WWF Regional Office for Africa, in association with the Luc Hoffmann Institute, WWF Norway, and the Africa Leadership University, is an attempt to further reach out to partners on viable ideas.
The Innovation Challenge generated over 300 applications across a wide range of potential solutions. Meanwhile, the 15 winners of the Challenge have gone through a business incubation programme facilitated by the project partners. Several of them have secured start-up funding through this process.
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Let's Take A Look At Some Of The Initiatives
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Home Of The Gorillas
The Naturalist, a Ugandan conservation company that took part in the Beyond Tourism Challenge has launched the Home of the Gorillas Initiative, which seeks to commercialize activities to generate non-trekking revenues towards Gorilla conservation via an app. Working in Uganda, which is also home to more than 50% of the world’s remaining mountain Gorillas, The Naturalist is leveraging technology to enable global community engagement with the gorillas, thereby achieving alternative channels to fund gorilla conservation.
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The Shaba
The Shaba Studio works with artisans in the last mile communities living in rural areas with rich cultural heritage to produce beautiful woven products while providing an alternative and sustainable source of income for communities living in conservation areas.
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Healthy Pi
MN Foods, trading as Healthy Pi is working with rural and Batwa women farmer groups living in proximity to National parks to grow chilli as input for condiment production.
The Healthy Pi brand is a Ugandan food processing brand that is deliberately working with women farmers to increase value from their farm produce. Every farm-based raw material used in the product range is grown by women farmers.
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Green Pesa
GreenPesa has been exploring opportunities for climate prosperity along the livestock value chain in Uganda. The organisation has also established the Youth Environmental Fellowship (YEFE) Uganda, which has attracted over 30 participants. This fellowship was formed to ensure the organisation has quality young environmentalist professionals to operationalise the various partnerships and potentially make climate profitable investments across the different value chains in Uganda.
GreenPesa has so far secured two critical partnerships. Firstly, with Agrishare Uganda, a simple-to-use platform for farmers across Uganda to rent and use agricultural equipment, land and other farm inputs across the country, and secondly, with Heifer International Uganda who has agreed to host a GreenPesa fellow to work with a Heifer International dedicated staff at investigating investment opportunities available within Heifer’s network for further climate-proofing along the livestock value chain.
These two partnerships enable GreenPesa to lay a strong foundation for a viable GreenPesa Minimum Viable Product (MVP) on a climate prosperous livestock value chain over the next 12 months.
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With $1,903,000 in funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the African Nature-Based Tourism Platform is a project that will connect funders to the communities and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) most in need of funding support. The project has the goal of mobilizing at least $15 million to support communities and SMEs in Covid-19 emergency relief efforts and to build greater resilience into the nature-based tourism business model into the future.
The African Nature-Based Tourism Platform releases country summary reports on the project's focal geographies which include Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, providing a snapshot of key findings from the data that we have collected from communities and SMEs.
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