African Wildlife Foundation (AWF)

Headquartered in nairobi, kenya, in fy24 awf worked directly in 11 African countries across 14 landscapes. Our networks, business development, and policy efforts spanned the continent and extended to north america and europe. The work was organized around three integrated strategies: leading for Wildlife, living with Wildlife, and caring for Wildlife, described here and in sections 4b and 4c.living with wildlifeliving with Wildlife initiatives created economic opportunity for indigenous peoples and local communities and provided tools and tactics to manage human-wildlife conflict. Accomplishments in fy24 include: developed sustainable livelihood opportunities, particularly with women and youth, in eight countries. For example in fy24, in the drc, nearly 800 women were taught trades such as tailoring and soap-making; 180 households participated in a community enterprise program to learn business planning, management, and savings; and indigenous women were trained in the harvest and sale of non-timber forest products. Provided climate-smart agricultural training and support. In cameroon, awf helped local communities establish nurseries and seed 140,000 cocoa plants, providing 115 community members the opportunity to establish a one-hectare cocoa plantation. In tanzania, awf sensitized 1,209 farmers in climate-smart agriculture and developed twelve acres of demonstration plots. Both activities were aimed at increasing productivity and reducing water use and land degradation. In cameroon, awf improved community livelihoods through sustainable agriculture, including the development of agroforestry agriculture such as cocoa farming and creating markets for non-timber forest products. In the democratic republic of the congo, farmers were trained in sustainable farming practices such as planting techniques and weed control, and they were provided drought-tolerant seeds, specifically adapted to their region.addressed water access for people, livestock, and Wildlife in seven countries. Previously, women and children were required to walk many miles to fetch water, causing children to miss school. To address this issue, in cameroon, we provided easily accessible water sources to 17,500 residents and their livestock and gardens. In kenya, new boreholes provided a convenient water source to 10,000 households and their livestock, and in zimbabwe, four solar-powered water sources provided 1,250 households with clean, reliable water. Ensured a rights-based approach to conservation. We carried out rights-based training with 150 Wildlife authorities and sensitized 1,647 indigenous peoples and local communities. We also established a complaint and conflict management mechanism (ccmm) in six landscapes to provide communities a means for lodging concerns. Other examples of this work include rwanda, where we led a rights-based approach engaging members of 74 villages about land use plans for the region. This work will include futuredevelopment of green villages that offer electricity, indoor plumbing, health care, education facilities, and other modern infrastructure. Awf landscape managers from kilombero (tanzania), faro (cameroon), kidepo (uganda), simien mountains (ethiopia), campo ma'an (cameroon), bili-uele (drc), tsavo-mkomazi (kenya/tanzania), and mid-zambezi (zimbabwe) came together to develop a pilot project with peace nexus Foundation that integrated peace and conflict sensitivity into the existing rights-based conservation work we already do. This program will provide training on mediation and conflict resolution tools, building a more peaceful community starting in fy25. Managed human-wildlife conflict. While human-wildlife conflict often focuses on preventing death or destruction to people and their property, humans can also have an adverse effect on Wildlife. Stewardship of livestock is important in protecting Wildlife from diseases that domestic animals can acquire and spread. The awf ethiopian team established a monitoring tool with the simien mountains national park that enabled them to quickly identify an outbreak in the park's buffer zone that put the endangered walia ibex at high risk. In collaboration with the ethiopian Wildlife conservation authority and the debark woreda animal health department, awf designed a vaccination program for livestock around the park, delivering 78,761 doses. In uganda, much of the conflicts occur outside of protected areas, so community Wildlife scouts play a critical role by sensitizing their communities to human Wildlife conflict management techniques and swiftly sharing Wildlife movement. In a three-day intensive workshop, awf trained community scouts in animal behavior, effective mitigation strategies (including planting chili peppers and using electric horns), and how to effectively work alongside community members.

Leading for wildlifeleading for Wildlife initiatives focused on growing, advising, and mobilizing African leadership at all levels to make conservation a key part of africa's growth strategies. Accomplishments in fy24 include:built biodiversity-friendly economies. We partnered with African countries in the development of national plans and strategies for driving green growth. For example, we supported zimbabwe in developing and launching the first-ever zimbabwe biodiversity economy report, which provided a framework to mainstream the value and contribution of nature into development planning, policy development, and decision-making on public and private sector funding. The report is recognized as a best practice for other countries to follow by the world bank global environment facility 8 project preparation guidebook. In collaboration with the government of rwanda, we completed a conservation and development master plan for the volcanoes landscape around volcanoes national park, guiding overall development in the region. Additionally, awf worked with partners to launch a business incubator program in the volcanoes landscape to bolster more than one hundred community-led businesses through training, data and ideation support. In tanzania, manyara ranch, a working cattle ranch and community conservancy in an important Wildlife corridor, was fully transitioned to community management, with significant ecotourism investments planned. Empowered networks of conservation leaders. Awf supported coalitions of African conservation stakeholders in everyday decision-making and in bringing their perspectives to local, national, regional, pan-african, and global dialogues and policy negotiations. This included support as secretariat to the African civil society biodiversity alliance (acba), the africa protected area directors (apad), and the global youth biodiversity network - africa (gybn-africa) at pan-african and global forums in establishing targets to reduce biodiversity loss and address climate change, including the cbd cop16 and the climate cop29. We also supported the African group of negotiators (agn), who provide continental representation in global un negotiations, with translation services and other meeting facilitation. Examples of local and national empowering include uganda, where awf partnered with the uganda Wildlife authority to assemble a coalition of community members, government officials, ngos, and conservation leaders to form the kidepo landscape conservation stakeholders forum, a network to influence policy and promote coexistence between humans and Wildlife. In zimbabwe awf trained 30 women and men as policy facilitators, who in turn trained 300 community members representing almost 6,000 local community members to ensure the inclusion of local perspectives in the development of the national biodiversity strategic action plan.developed conservation leadership. Awf supported four formal fellowship programs and environmental journalism training for African journalists in six countries. The fellowship programs included the awf charles r. wall conservation leadership & management fellows (16 fellows); the awf charles r. wall young African policy fellows (15 fellows); a fellowship for postgraduate scientists, the charlotte fellows (2 fellows); and a fellowship for African conservation filmmakers, the African conservation voices producers lab in partnership with newf (9 fellows). Webinars on conservation issues were provided to a network of 45 working journalists from six countries, who received in-person training from awf in prior years. Supporting global investment in african-led conservation. Awf's policy work extended to north america and europe. Awf contributed to united states government-facilitated processes to establish the us Foundation for international conservation (usfica), bringing african-led conservation approaches and perspectives to the design process.

Caring for wildlifecaring for Wildlife initiatives included monitoring Wildlife populations, strengthening protected area management and security, introducing innovative spatial tools for land use planning and threat assessment, and training and otherwise supporting investigators, prosecutors, judiciary members, and Wildlife authorities to deter, detect, investigate, and prosecute Wildlife crime.monitored Wildlife populations. In fy24, awf actively measured 38 populations of priority Wildlife species across 14 landscapes, analyzing field and gis data to determine threats. Species specifically monitored were 12 elephant populations, 8 large carnivore populations, 7 great ape populations, 4 giraffe populations, and 6 rhino populations. Populations were chosen for monitoring because their viability provided good indications of overall ecosystem health and Wildlife security.strengthened protected area management. Awf supported Wildlife authorities in protected area management through training and donation of equipment for rangers and eco-guards in five countries. This included training in the drc, ethiopia, kenya, tanzania, and uganda.provided technological tools. Awf's ongoing strategic partnership with esri, the preeminent spatial technology company, generated innovative, accessible tools to facilitate evidence-based decision-making and ease of use by non-technical users. In turn, these tools have scaled efforts with partners throughout africa, including africa civil society biodiversity alliance, africa protected area directors, and Wildlife authorities in kenya, cameroon, zimbabwe, and ethiopia. The tools collected data on Wildlife movement and population dynamics and helped awf, partners, protected area managers, and local communities make informed conservation decisions. Increased capacity to investigate and prosecute Wildlife crime. Awf's counter Wildlife trafficking (cwt) division conducted several programs. The judicial and prosecutorial assistance training program trained 665 law enforcement officials in the drc, ethiopia, kenya, tanzania, and uganda. Court monitoring in kenya and tanzania led to a 68% conviction rate among cases. The Wildlife investigation and emerging crimes program built capacity among 386 officials in the drc, ethiopia, kenya, tanzania, and uganda by providing new tools and methodologies to address the changing Wildlife crime landscape. In addition, awf developed training manuals and supported special investigative operations in the drc, kenya, and tanzania. Those efforts netted 34 arrests and the recovery of 167 kilograms of ivory. Awf also donated law enforcement equipment to rangers, eco-guards, and scouts in the drc, ethiopia, kenya, tanzania, and uganda for a total investment of $133,599. Increased capacity to detect and deter Wildlife crime. Awf has trained and provided animal welfare oversight for detection dog units in botswana, cameroon, ethiopia, kenya, mozambique, tanzania, and uganda. In addition to training the dogs, we also trained Wildlife authority dog handlers and provided guidance on caring for the dogs. Once trained, the dog teams are managed by the Wildlife authorities. In fy24, ten new dogs and five handlers were trained to deploy at bole international airport in ethiopia. A canine facility was built for dog teams in ethiopia, and awf developed tools and guidelines for canine care and supported countries with veterinary care, dog food, and ongoing training. Detection dog teams also began working at nsimalen international airport in cameroon. Their efforts included searches of 41,823 flights, 1,621,924 cargo containers, 3,398,110 pieces of luggage, and 11,232 motor vehicles in cameroon, kenya, mozambique, tanzania, and uganda. Increased habitat for Wildlife. 3,600,000 hectares were put under conservation management in the democratic republic of the congo. In addition, restoration was completed of 27 hectares of former farmland previously donated to rwanda's volcanoes national park by awf, and the land opened up for use as a protected habitat for mountain gorillas and other species.