Description:

The SWM Community Conservancy Project aims to strengthen innovative, community-led efforts to reconcile the conservation of wild species with food security, while at the same time improving local livelihoods. This four‑year initiative began in 2021 and is being implemented in Botswana and Namibia in partnership with the respective national governments. The Project supports the development of a network of Community Conservancies (CCs) to improve ecological connectivity and socio-economic sustainability in the Kavango-Zambezi (KaZa) landscape, the world’s largest transfrontier conservation area.

The SWM Programme is developing innovative solutions based on field projects in fifteen countries. It is a seven-year (2018-2024) Organisation of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) initiative, which is being funded by the European Union with co-funding from the French Development Agency (AFD) and the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM). It is the first international initiative to tackle the wild meat challenge by addressing both wildlife conservation and food security. The SWM Programme mobilizes an international group of partner organizations with strong expertise and experience in wildlife conservation, food security and policy development. It is implemented through a consortium partnership, which includes the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), CIFOR, CIRAD and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).