Celebrating Partnerships for World Wildlife Day – Fourteen International Organisations Join Together for WWD 2023
Joint Statement by the Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management (CPW)
CPW Strategic Meeting in Dublin (26 February, 2023)
This year’s World Wildlife Day theme of ‘Partnerships for Wildlife Conservation’ highlights the many ways in which people can make a positive difference for wildlife.
Wildlife is a key part of natural ecosystems and broader landscapes. Wildlife is also a valuable natural asset which has economic, social, and cultural values from local to international levels. But it is disappearing at a rapid pace. Partnerships are essential to reverse the decline of wildlife and sustain all life on earth. Partnerships can also help reconcile differences between different stakeholders and produce much needed new ideas and solutions.
The Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management (CPW) is a prominent example of productive collaboration among fourteen international organizations with substantive mandates and programmes to promote the sustainable use and conservation of wildlife resources. The partnership works to increase cooperation and coordination on sustainable wildlife management issues among its members and partners.
The CPW, established in March 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand, provides a platform for addressing wildlife management issues that require national and supra-national responses and also works to promote and increase cooperation and coordination on sustainable wildlife management issues among its members and partners.
More recently, at the 14th meeting of the CPW in July 2022, the partners recognized that this scope should be extended to address the broader issues of sustainable use of wild species, beyond terrestrial vertebrate wildlife.
CITES celebrates its 50th anniversary and the CPW celebrates its 10th anniversary this March. The Chair of the CPW, Ivonne Higuero, Secretary-General of CITES said “When the CPW was established, sustainable use and management of wildlife was difficult to find on the political agenda. It is good news that on its 10th anniversary, we can affirm that the importance of sustainable use and management of wildlife have been recognized in the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Assessment (IPBES) Report on the Sustainable Use of Wild Species and in several targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.“
On the occasion of World Wildlife Day, the CPW wishes to announce that it has agreed to work together on the following new priorities:
- To support countries to ensure that the use and trade of wildlife is legal, sustainable and safe;
- To raise awareness of the links between sustainable use of wildlife, food security, livelihoods and well-being, culture and the integrity of landscapes;
- To promote the prevention, management and reduction of human-wildlife conflict and enhance coexistence;
- To embed the sustainable use and management of wildlife in the One Health agenda; and
- To advocate for sustainable and inclusive wildlife economies.
Vice Chair, Dilys Roe, Biodiversity Team Leader at IIED and Chair of the IUCN Sustainable Use and Livelihoods (SULi) Specialist Group said “With these new thematic objectives, we hope that we will be well-placed to support collective efforts to support countries to implement the newly adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and meet their obligations under the biodiversity-related multilateral environmental agreements.”
The Partnership collectively would like to wish everyone a Happy World Wildlife Day!
Useful links:
To keep up the momentum on the work conducted by the CPW, the CIC is organising its 69th General Assembly in Paris (20-23 April) under the theme Biodiversity 2030; Restore – Rewild – Remind as one of the first major gatherings following the adoption of the 2030 Global Biodiversity Framework
This will be a major milestone in shaping the CIC 2030 Programme in support of the GBF, as well as wider global targets such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
If you are interested in hearing more about the 69th General Assembly, or would like to be part of the discussions there, visit the official General Assembly website to register your attendance.
