NEWSLETTER

Category: Project news

  • Training and cooperatives are transforming livelihoods in Zambia

    Training and cooperatives are transforming livelihoods in Zambia

    Participant contributing to a group exercise during enterprise development training for community cooperatives in Nyawa Chiefdom, southern Zambia. Photo by Landscape Alliance.

    By Andreas Muhwanga

    This content was originally posted on Forests News

    17 Mar. 2026 — For nearly 25 years, Elliot Mudenda relied on hunting to support his family in Nyawa Chiefdom in southern Zambia. He had started as a farmer, but recurring droughts gradually made farming unreliable and unproductive. 

    With few alternative income options available, hunting became a means for survival.  

    However, Elliot knew the risks — the predawn darkness. The hours spent tracking game through the bush. The constant threat of wild animals. The fear of running into game rangers who could arrest him or getting injured.

    “I never stopped caring about wildlife,” Elliot says, understanding his path was unsustainable. “But, I also had to survive.” 

    Today, Elliot has stopped hunting. Instead, he manages fish ponds as a member of the Sianyongo Fish Farming cooperative. The shift represents more than a change in occupation — it is part of a broader experiment in whether conservation can succeed by offering people viable economic alternatives. 

    The Sustainable Wildlife Management Program (SWM), funded by the European Union and implemented by the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) and partners, is built on a simple principle: conservation cannot succeed where livelihoods fail.

    Continue reading on Forests News

    Acknowledgements

    The Sustainable Wildlife Management Program (SWM) is a major international initiative aimed at enhancing the conservation and sustainable use of wildlife in forest, savannah and wetland ecosystems. It is funded by the European Union, with co-funding from the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM) and the French Development Agency (AFD). Projects are being piloted and tested with governments and communities in 15 participating countries. The programme is implemented by a dynamic consortium of partners that includes CIFOR-ICRAF, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD).

    In Zambia, the SWM Programme activities are carried out by the Government of the Republic of Zambia and Nyawa and Musokotwane Royal Establishment (NRE) respectively in collaboration with CIFOR-ICRAF

  • Sandra Owusu-Gwamfi talks boons and barriers in her herpetology career

    Sandra Owusu-Gwamfi talks boons and barriers in her herpetology career

    A broad-fronted puddle frog (Phrynobatrachus latifrons) perched on a leaf. Amphibians such as this are central to Sandra Owusu-Gwamfi’s research on sustainable harvesting and conservation in West Africa.

    20 Feb. 2026 – When Sandra Owusu-Gwamfi was in high school, she never imagined she would one day be known as the ‘Frog Woman of Ghana’.

    Like in many parts of the world, as many high-achieving students in Ghana, Sandra was expected to pursue medicine or to be funnelled towards the medical field. But a cousin came to her with a wilder idea—a new program at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology that he said would be Ghana’s “next big thing”: environmental science.

    “My dad was hoping I was going to change my mind eventually, but I didn’t,” she laughs. Today, with a PhD under her belt and numerous accolades as the country’s first female herpetologist — a scientist who studies reptiles and amphibians — even he has come around.

    Her decision was cemented when she learned from her lecturers about leading women conservationists Jane Goodall and Wangari Maathai.  

    “I immediately fell in love with the whole concept of conservation,” Owusu-Gwamfi says. “The kind of passion they had…I was just amazed. I was empowered. I wanted to know more.” 

    Read full article

    Acknowledgements

    This blog is supported by the Sustainable Use of Wild Species Transformative Partnership Platform (SU-TPP), a diverse community generating evidence and tools that put sustainable use of wild species at the heart of solutions to reverse biodiversity loss, zoonotic disease transmission, food insecurity and other crises. The SU-TPP is worldwide and includes policymakers, universities, practitioners, Indigenous Peoples and local communities.ervation Science in the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford and Forest Peoples Programme (FPP).

  • New community-based monitoring guide for freshwater turtle conservation

    New community-based monitoring guide for freshwater turtle conservation

    Photo: The Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme Yapukari turtle team in Guyana helps babies safely hatch. Luke McKenna/FAO

    26 Feb. 2026 – A new guide, Community-based Monitoring of Freshwater Turtles, empowers Indigenous and local communities to take the lead in turtle conservation. Created together with the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampis Nation’s successful turtle repopulation initiative in Peru, the guide blends traditional ecological knowledge with hands-on monitoring methods.

    Why it matters?

    As human pressures continue to drive wildlife declines, keeping a close watch on at-risk species like freshwater turtles has never been more important. These long-lived animals face significant dangers from the earliest stages of life, making population and habitat monitoring essential.

    By equipping communities to observe and document turtle populations, the guide can help safeguard the future for generations, while also supporting healthier rivers and stronger biodiversity overall.

    Download guide

    Acknowledgements

    This guidance was written by Albana Berberi, Helen Newing, and José Hernán Flores as part of the Transformative Pathways project, developed in collaboration with the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science in the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford and Forest Peoples Programme (FPP).

    The Steering Committee of the Sustainable Use of Wild Species Transformative Partnership Platform (SU-TPP) contains representatives from The Department of Biology at the University of Oxford and Forest People’s Programme (FPP).

  • WILDMEAT Database strengthens evidence for sustainable wild meat governance

    WILDMEAT Database strengthens evidence for sustainable wild meat governance

    The WILDMEAT Database provides open access to the most comprehensive global data on wild meat hunting, consumption and market sales, supporting evidence-based approaches to sustainable use of wild species. 

    By bringing together hundreds of studies from around the world into a single, standardised platform, the database allows policymakers, practitioners, researchers and civil society to move beyond isolated case studies and identify broader patterns and trends over time and across regions. 

    LEARN MORE: https://sutpp.cifor-icraf.org/project/wildmeat-project/  

    VISIT: https://www.wildmeat.org/ 

    The database includes data on hunting offtakes, household and individual consumption, and market sales, with built-in safeguards to ensure anonymity and ethical data use. When used for monitoring and evaluation, time-series data can also help assess the effectiveness of wild meat management and policy interventions. 

    CONTACT: info@wildmeat.org to learn more about becoming a data contributor and the different options for sharing. 

  • SWM Programme celebrates World Wetlands Day

    SWM Programme celebrates World Wetlands Day

    2 Feb. 2026 – Achieving the mission of the Sustainable Use of Wild Species Transformative Partnership Platform (SU-TPP) depends on sustainable use everywhere, including wetlands.  

    On World Wetlands Day, the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme highlights how law, technology and community-led approaches are translating the Ramsar “wise use” philosophy into practice. 

    WATCH: Interview with Musonda Mumba, the Secretary General of the Convention on Wetlands 

    • The Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme Legal Hub helps countries turn Ramsar principles into practical and enforceable legal frameworks that align with pre-existing multi-lateral agreements. 
    • Community-driven and culturally respectful approaches result in measurable improvements to biodiversity, climate resilience and human well-being. 

    READ: “Remote sensing technologies to improve sustainable management of wetlands and waterbirds in the Sahel”  

    • The SWM Programme’s RESSOURCE+ project is testing remote sensing technologies combined with AI to improve monitoring of wetlands and water bird populations. 

    Why it matters 

    The world has lost over 35% of its wetlands since 1970, and the rate of loss is three times faster than forest loss.  

    February second marks the anniversary of the Convention on Wetlands (RAMSAR), an intergovernmental treaty that establishes the framework for countries to manage and conserve their wetlands. The anniversary is an important time to highlight initiatives like those of the SWM Programme that aim to reverse the trend of disappearing wetlands and evolve towards more “sustainable use.”  

    The Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme is funded by the European Union with co-funding from the French Facility for Global Environment and the French Development Agency. The initiative is coordinated by a dynamic consortium of four partners, led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).