Side Event
Benefits for People and Wildlife: Sustainable Use in Operation
Organizer
Focal point: International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation;
Co-sponsor: European Sustainable Use Specialist Group of IUCN SSC (ESUSG); with the Torghar Project from Pakistan and the European Council for the Conservation of Fungi
Date and Time
22 May 2008 13:15 - 14:45
Meeting
Ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 9)
The Principles of the Ecosystem Approach (CBD VII/11) and the Addis Ababa Principles & Guidelines for the Sustainable Use of Biodiversity (CBD VII/12) provide a framework for the sustainable use of biodiversity in order to promote its conservation and bring benefits to the people who live closest to it, thus fulfilling Articles 1 and 10 of the Convention, among others. Building on recent similar events sponsored by SUSG & CIC, this side-event will present four current initiatives in which the two sets of Principles are being implemented at international, national and local levels, and will ask how such processes can be accelerated and spread more widely. Presentations will showcase the following initiatives: The European Charter on Hunting & Biodiversity, adopted by the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention in late 2007 under the aegis of the Council of Europe with its 40 member countries; the 2007 research case study, Use Nationally of Wild Resources across Europe (UNWIRE), uses national surveys to show that millions European citizens are spending billions of euros on hunting, angling, bird-watching and gathering fungi and plant materials and links governance factors to conservation benefit; A long term Swiss study which has shown that mushroom picking and disturbance of the forest floor at various levels of intensity have a very limited impact, thus pointing the way to more widespread enjoyment of a resource which affords both nourishment, pleasure and economic benefit; and updates from the Torghar Project in Pakistan whose design is based on the principles of sustainable use, local tribe involvement and conservation biology where populations of Sulaiman Markhor (Capra falconeri jerdoni) have increased after more then 20 years from a critical level to a stable populations thanks to sustainable hunting tourism and community conservation efforts .