Mapping donors: Key areas for tackling illegal wildlife trade (Asia and Africa)
This report maps the donors and projects following a review of the literature and relevant websites
Abstract
The wildlife trade is rapidly becoming a major international priority for governments, NGOs and private philanthropists (for example see White House, 2014). This is evidenced in the recent increase in funding made available for wildlife trade related projects. Recent examples include: USAID has committed US$40 million, Howard G. Buffett Foundation has committed US$25 million to South Africa for rhino protection, The Clinton Global Initiative has pledged to raise US$80 million (US$10 million from US Government already) and the UK Government has identified it as a major policy, with the announcement of a £10 million fund for tackling the trade. The authors mapped the donors and projects following a review of secondary and grey literature as well as relevant websites. However, such a search can only ever be considered as indicative rather than comprehensive: the range of organisations involved in conservation initiatives is complex and extensive. Further it is difficult to disaggregate projects that deal with specific species conservation (e.g. elephant or rhino) more generally, from those that specifically tackle the illegal wildlife trade – there is some inevitable overlap. The precise figures involved are also difficult to determine because of double counting, or confidentiality regarding donations. Finally, there are a number of on-going projects which cannot be listed; they are necessarily confidential because they are aimed at uncovering various aspects of an illegal trade. From our initial assessment it appears there are four main areas:
- Two types of funding for demand reduction initiatives: projects and campaigns
- Funding related to rural development/CBNRM approaches is not well recognised as an effective policy response
- Funding related to intelligence gathering, surveillance, capacity building in crime scene management is increasing as a priority
- Funding related to counter-insurgency/security is an increasing priority
This report has been produced for Evidence on Demand with the assistance of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) contracted through the Climate, Environment, Infrastructure and Livelihoods Professional Evidence and Applied Knowledge Services (CEIL PEAKS) programme, jointly managed by HTSPE Limited and IMC Worldwide Limited.
Citation
Duffy, R.; Humphreys, J. Mapping donors: Key areas for tackling illegal wildlife trade (Asia and Africa). Evidence on Demand, UK (2014) 40 pp. [DOI: 10.12774/eod_hd.june2014.duffy_et_al]
Links