Description:

The Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme aims to improve the conservation and sustainable use of wildlife in forest, savannah and wetland ecosystems in member countries of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS). Our work focuses on how to reconcile the challenges of wildlife conservation with food security and rural socio-economic development, particularly where rural communities use wildlife in their diet and to supplement their income, and where it is part of their culture. The SWM Programme is working in 15 countries, namely Botswana, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Gabon, Guyana, Madagascar, Mali, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

To achieve robust, community-based sustainable wildlife management, the SWM Programme is promoting a framework that encompasses a better understanding of the environment and its resources, community rights, governance, management, and reduces rural dependency on unsustainable natural resource use. These components represent the minimum prerequisites: if one is missing, sustainable use is unlikely to be achieved.