The global environment facility 6 (GEF6) stenghtening community capacity to reduce the rate of illegal wildlife trade project

In August 2020 the Southern African Wildlife College, through the Rural Initiatives for Sustainable Environment (RISE) Unit, entered into an agreement with the Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) as a consultant and partner on the Global Environment Facility (GEF6) Project on Strengthening Community Capacity to Reduce the Rate of Illegal Wildlife Trade in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA).

This Global Environment Facility – Strengthening Institutions Programme (GEF6 SIP) community livelihoods project is being designed with a clear focus on long-term community beneficiation and diversification strategies, which will be prepared in consultation with the relevant community representatives, government agencies and strategic partners in the landscape. Thereafter, appropriate projects will be identified and placed in a project pipeline for fund-raising and future implementation. 

This project is incremental to the existing South African National Parks (SANParks), Peace Parks Foundation (PPF), the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) partner programmes. This GEF6 SIP Programme will provide critical support to the existing programmes implemented by these partner organisations.  The aim being to contribute to the enabling institutional environment, as well as by assisting with governance related requirements, relevant and associated training, which are viewed as critical to ensuring long-term sustainability of the implementation projects, supported by SANParks, PPF, DEFF, WWF and the partner network.

The GEF6 SIP stakeholder engagement and project implementation will be supported through the Task Team as an oversight body, and be guided by the GEF6 SIP stakeholder engagement strategy. The task team partners have existing relationships with the focal communities, and will in turn provide the mechanisms for engagement, alignment, integration and will be informed by the theory of change, and stakeholder profiling in the three focal clusters, namely; broader Makuya area, Sabie River / Sabie Sands Wildtuin area and Matsulu-Stolznek area. 

The GEF6 SIP seeks to strengthen community awareness about the benefits of conservation to livelihoods, including leveraging support to conservation education programmes. Communication and development programmes will be guided by overarching principles of participation and sustainability, and will be developed in collaboration to fit the context of each of the three pilot communities. The programmes will be co-developed with communities and network partners, and will be inclusive of environmental and socio-economic factors.

The Southern African Wildlife College looks forward to an engaging four-year partnership with the focal communities, community structures, governmental departments, the conservation partners and organisations participating in the overall project process.