SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC RESOURCES FOR AFRICATHE SERA POLICY INITIATIVE
INTRODUCTION
The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) works with the people of Africa to ensure the wildlife and wild lands of Africa will endure forever. AWF’s principal way of working is to join with partners and select large, viable conservation landscapes in which both ecological objectives and economic values can be pursued at a transformational scale. These areas are called the ‘African Heartlands’. AWF is presently working in eight Heartlands and plans to expand systematically into other targeted landscapes in Africa in the coming years. In order to leverage AWF’s on the ground conservation impact throughout the continent, AWF is undertaking an initiative to promote an agenda of policy, legislative and institutional recommendations based on the principles and lessons of the African Heartlands Programme. This initiative, which encompasses AWF’s work both in and outside of Heartlands, is called the Sustainable Economic Resources for Africa (SERA) Policy Initiative. The word SERA means policy in Swahili, one of the most widely spoken African languages. SERA targets policies guiding the sustainable management and economic use of Africa’s natural resources, including wildlife, forests, fisheries, rangelands freshwater and marine resources.. In our rapidly changing world, emerging technologies, models and financial mechanisms hold promise and create new opportunity for enhanced economic, social and environmental benefits now and in the future. For example: capturing the value of rangelands through improved livestock production and marketing; communities receiving carbon credits for sequestering carbon on lands they put under conservation; creating conservation land easements; enabling people to generate, utilize and potentially sell alternative forms of energy based on solar, wind or micro-generation. THE SERA POLICY INITIATIVE
AWF is maturing into a pan-African organisation with programmes in eastern, southern and central Africa and a new programme being established in western Africa. The AWF vision is one of large, well-managed conservation landscapes which deliver sustainable socio-economic benefits, particularly through tourism, cannot be achieved by AWF alone. To promote the agenda of large landscape conservation as a tool for development and economic security, AWF is building relationships with the African Union (AU) and its New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), with pan-African organizations such as the African Development Bank (AfDB), with regional economic blocks including SADC, the EAC and ECOWAS, as well as with the international donor community, individual African governments, other conservation organizations, and the private sector. The SERA Policy Initiative is a vehicle to realise this vision. SERA supports: 1. Policy Formulation– AWF maintains and annually updates an agenda of 12-15 priority policy recommendations for Africa. These recommendations capture the essence of our 45 years of experience on the ground and the principles which, if reflected in policy and legislation, will help protect Africa’s wildlife and wild lands and optimize their contribution to sustainable development, poverty alleviation and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.
2. Policy Demonstration – As general recommendations are not enough, AWF seeks to work with our partners to elucidate and model each policy recommendation in its current programme with real tools, examples, and best practices that can be shared around the continent and incorporated into national and regional policy frameworks. In many cases, to demonstrate policy, AWF takes direct action to pioneer models which become case studies that serve as useful examples in political discussions and analysis and therefore compliment government efforts. 3. Policy Advocacy - working primarily through AWF’s Office of the President in our Nairobi Headquarters, as well as through AWF Trustees and others, AWF seeks to communicate these policy recommendations to targeted audiences and advocate with individual African governments, groups of governments, and multi and bilateral development institutions for the adoption or adaptation of these policies in the context of the needs of specific parts of Africa. CURRENT SERA ACTIVITIES
Here are some examples of activities currently under development by AWF as part of the SERA Policy Initiative: • • • • • •
AWF and partners have developed a Protected Area Planning Framework (PAPF) which assists national protected area authorities to create simple but rigorous plans for national parks and reserves. AWF has developed a tool box for creating community-owned conservation enterprises including business planning, due diligence and joint venture arrangements. With assistance from U.S.-based The Nature Conservancy, AWF is creating models for conservation leases and easements of community and private lands in Africa which can reward land-owners for conserving. AWF and partners have developed a framework for commercial tourism leases in national parks and protected areas to ensure governments and protected area agencies secure fair revenues from these opportunities. AWF has developed and piloted planning tools for community land use and natural resource management in wildlife rich areas. The outputs of a landscape scale zoning methodology developed and refined by AWF have been directly incorporated into national codes and legislation governing forest and resource management.
SUMMARY
The SERA Policy Initiative enables AWF to have more impact on our mission by leveraging the learning and intellectual capital of our African Heartlands beyond the number of specific landscapes that AWF can feasibly support and beyond the network of our existing partners and stakeholders. By sharing our learning and recommendations with governments and other partners, there is a greater likelihood of African wildlife and wild lands contributing meaningfully to sustainable economic development in more parts of Africa.
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AWF POLICY AGENDA FOR AFRICA
The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) is a leading international conservation organisation focused solely on the continent of Africa. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, AWF works with the people of Africa to ensure the wildlife and wild lands of Africa will endure forever. In order to achieve lasting conservation impact in Africa and to ensure the contribution of wildlife to a sustainable future for Africa’s people, AWF promotes the following policy priorities in our relationships with African governments, NEPAD, the African Union, regional economic bodies, and bilateral and multilateral donors investing in the continent. The twelve policy statements below are central to AWF’s programme of work in Africa, and are derived from our 45+ years of experience on the ground. AWF has a practical programme of work in support of each of these policy areas, and encourages government and other partners to support them. 1. AFRICA’S COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN WILDLIFE
Africa’s wildlife and wild lands are unmatched in the world and one of the continent’s most significant sources of future ‘competitive advantages’ in the global marketplace. Where it exists, AWF encourages African nations to conserve, expand and add value to their wildlife resources and to position them as a critical part of development and growth strategies for the future of the continent, reflected in national strategies for poverty alleviation and for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. 2. AFRICAN-DEFINED AND AFRICAN-LED AGENDA
Conservation in Africa is frequently perceived both locally and internationally as the domain of foreign conservation experts and agencies. While the contributions of all are welcome, AWF believes that the conservation agenda for the continent must be set by and led by African conservation leaders. Where the capacity for this leadership is not yet up to strength, AWF asserts that it is incumbent on all stakeholders to work to develop this capacity, hand in hand with any implementation activities. 3. CENTRALITY OF PROTECTED AREAS SYSTEMS
AWF recognises that formally protected areas are central to the delivery of national and global conservation goals. AWF encourages every African nation to create and fully support a protected area system representative of the habitats and biodiversity endemic to the country. These systems must recognise local and national development priorities and work to deliver net benefits at the local and national levels. These systems should operate with a goal of becoming self-financing and sustaining in order to ensure their place as a national public good. 4. SUSTAINABLE USE AT THE HEART OF CONSERVATION
AWF believes in the protection of resources within formally designated national parks but encourages carefully monitored and sustainable use of natural resources outside these more restricted areas to ensure that human needs and aspirations are satisfied while maintaining ecosystem viability. Ecosystem function and biodiversity resources cannot be conserved through protected area systems alone, but requires sustainable management at scale, making the principle of sustainable use central to conservation efforts. 5. IDENTIFY AND PROMOTE LARGE SCALE CONSERVATION AND TOURISM DESTINATIONS
Conservation at scale is important for both ecological and economic reasons. AWF’s experience suggests that a few large scale conservation and tourism destinations will generate more benefits to society than many small, fragmented efforts. The Kruger/Limpopo conservation area, the Serengeti-
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Mara-Ngorongoro area, and the Upper Zambezi-Victoria Falls-Okavango area are examples of the environmental and economic potential of large scale conservation in Africa. AWF supports the scaling up of support to these places and a process of identifying and investing in similar large scale conservation destinations around the continent. 6. SUPPORT REGIONAL COOPERATION AND TRANSFRONTIER CONSERVATION
Biodiversity and ecosystems do not recognise national boundaries. Creating conservation that works, including through large scale conservation and tourism destinations, requires transfrontier collaboration. AWF is committed to working towards effective policies which encourage regional cooperation, harmonise management, tourism, and revenue-sharing policy and practice across national borders, and facilitate the flow of resources, visitors, and the net benefits of conservation. 7. APPROPRIATE DEVELOPMENT OF INFRASTRUCTURE
Conservation is not passive; it requires active investment in infrastructure which is carefully designed to optimize the benefits to society. AWF encourages African governments and their partners to invest in parks, security, airports, roads, tourism infrastructure and communications that will enable the management of protected areas and the appropriate development of conservation and tourism destinations. 8. LOCAL INCENTIVES TO CONSERVE
AWF respects the principle that the owners and users of land and wildlife resources must be given the primary stake in their management and in the benefits generated. AWF supports strong, secure, tenure arrangements for local communities living with wildlife on their land, and effective national policy and legal frameworks that protect tenure and rights. AWF has a particular interest in developing and applying models that give local communities a large and defining financial stake in the resources they conserve and in promoting public and private investments in enabling and replicating these models. 9. MITIGATE CLIMATE CHANGE
AWF recognizes that climate change poses a major threat to Africa and believes that Africa has the opportunity to mitigate the effects of climate change with both technological and environmental responses. AWF supports African efforts to ‘leap frog’ over expensive, inefficient technologies and embrace newer, light technologies like micro-generators and wireless communications which bring affordable services to more people quickly and avoid the creation of a carbon-based infrastructure. Environmentally, avoided deforestation in Africa is already playing a significant role in climate change mitigation, and awareness is increasing as to the potential mitigation contribution of Africa’s grasslands. AWF supports global and national policy frameworks which recognise and reward appropriate local and national sustainable forest, woodland and grassland management efforts. 10. GOOD GOVERNANCE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
AWF perceives a strong connection between good governance, democracy, respect for the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the full participation and empowerment of women in decisionmaking and leadership. AWF values transparency, participation and accountability in decision making processes. 11. HIV/AIDS, MALARIA AND HEALTH
AWF believes that the health of Africa’s ecosystems cannot be separated from the health of its people. A population weakened by chronic and preventable disease is hindered in its ability to achieve its conservation and development goals. AWF endorses local and international efforts to improve the health of people, including strenuous efforts to combat HIV/AIDS.
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12. SUPPORTIVE INTERNATIONAL AID FRAMEWORK
AWF calls on the international community to encourage, support, and invest in the Africa-defined agenda for the continent, as embodied by the work of the NEPAD programme of the African Union and international policy processes including the Africa Commission and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. These bodies along with relevant international conventions issue a common call for substantial increases in investment in Africa’s natural resource and ecosystem management, yet to date, these have not been delivered.
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