The WCS Mozambique Country Director Mr. James Bampton is attending the 3rd annual Global Wildlife Programme South Africa Conference in Pretoria, representing WCS Global. Mozambique is represented in this event by Mr. Mateus Mutemba, General Director of ANAC, Mr. Pejul Sebastião, Law Enforcement ANAC, and Lolita Hilário, PNUD.
The 2019 conference is taking place under the theme Investing in the Wildlife Economy for Livelihoods and Conservation and comprises technical discussions, interactive working groups and a field visit to the Kruger National Park.
The aim is to strengthen collaboration between government and partners to implement GWP projects, and to stimulate new thinking and opportunities for conservation and development.
It is hoped that the conference will increase awareness of experiences from Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean on building and growing a wildlife-based economy, enhance the understanding of the range of projects participating in the GWP and share good practices in project design and implementation, and discuss opportunities to provide input into Global Environment Fund’s project design activities.
Government focal points and project management units from the 29 GWP countries, implementing partners, NGO representatives and technical experts are attending the conference.
GWP is a Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded and World Bank Group-led $213 million program. It consists of 29 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Since 2016, 19 projects have been implemented, using GEF-6 funding, under an integrated framework to support wildlife conservation and crime prevention for sustainable development. In June 2019, 10 additional countries joined the program (using GEF-7 funds).
GWP national projects invest in activities ranging from anti-poaching, community engagement, human-wildlife conflict (HWC) management, nature-based tourism, protected area management, integrated landscape management, anti-trafficking, and demand reduction. A GWP Global Project, implemented by the World Bank in partnership with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), facilitates knowledge exchange, coordination, and collaboration across national projects and other stakeholders.
WCS is implementing a $5 million GEF- project to strengthening information management and monitoring to reduce the rate of illegal wildlife trade in Niassa National Reserve.
The 2019 conference is a joint effort by the Government of South Africa, World Bank, UNEP, and other GWP partners to promote knowledge sharing and collaboration amongst national projects.