Programme

Poor people depend on the environment for their livelihoods and well-being. Improved management of the environment and natural resources contributes directly to poverty reduction, more sustainable livelihoods and pro-poor growth. To fight poverty, promote security and preserve the ecosystems that poor people rely on for their livelihoods, pro-poor economic growth and environmental sustainability must be integrated into economic policies, planning systems and institutions.

SmartFish is one of the largest regional programmes for fisheries in Africa. It is financed by the European Union, and implemented by the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) in collaboration with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). There are twenty beneficiary countries under the programme.

Creating welfare and jobs in rural areas is a development policy priority for Africa. Seventy percent of Africa 's rural populations derive their livelihoods from agriculture, and the number of young people living in rural areas is continuously growing and will continue to do so over the next decades.

NEPAD's Food and Nutrition Security Programme strives to reduce hunger and malnutrition of the vulnerable populations using evidence-based policies and programmes. The programme undertakes research, builds capacity for policy makers and programme experts across sectors and supports implementation. This programmes exists within NEPAD's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which is concerned with reducing poverty and hunger through agriculture-led growth.

Fish is one of the leading export commodities for Africa, with an annual export value of 14 billion USD. However, many African nations lack the capacity to utilize their aquatic assets while simultaneously protecting them from degradation and overuse. The full economic and social benefits of the fish trade have yet to reach its full potential. Without an adequate governance structure, fisheries and the fish trade will not be adequately safeguarded for the benefit of future generations.

NatureUganda's Important Bird Areas (IBAs) Programme works to ensure the survival of bird populations in Uganda using the concept of IBAs. IBAs are sites of global conservation importance identified using birds to locate key sites for conservation across the globe. They are practical tools for conservation. IBAs are identified using standard internationally agreed criteria, which are objective, quantitative and scientifically defensible. IBAs vary in size; however, they must be large enough to support self-sustaining populations of those species for which they are important.

The Bird Population Monitoring scheme, coordinated by NatureUganda, works with local and regional partner organizations to build local and regional capacity for Bird Population Monitoring and engagement with local/regional policy forums. The scheme aims for long-term sustainability by engaging volunteer observers in simple and rewarding bird monitoring with clear objectives and conservation value, and with high quality support for participants (e.g., good training, educational materials and appropriate reporting of results and feedback).

The Mount Elgon Regional Ecosystem Conservation Programme (MERECP) is a programme of the East African Community whose oversight, coordination and supervision was delegated to the Lake Victoria Basin Commission. It was designed by the IUCN through multi-stakeholder consultations, discussions and interaction with the East African Community Secretariat (EAC), governments of Kenya and Uganda through relevant national government agencies, local government/districts, user groups, NGOs, private sector, local communities, conservationists and researchers.

Lake Victoria is the second largest freshwater body in the world. Over the last four decades, however, the lake has faced a number of environmental problems including pollution, biodiversity loss, habitat destruction and soil erosion. It is estimated that the lake 's indigenous fish species have been reduced by 80% and over 70% of the forest cover in the catchment area has been lost. In addition, the water quality in the rivers flowing into the lake continues to carry increasing amounts of silt and nutrients.

Rapid population growth and intensified human activities present increasing threats to the biological richness and natural resources in the Lake Tanganyika basin. The governments of the lake 's riparian countries Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Zambia recognised these threats and collaborated to establish a sustainable development and management plan for the lake and its catchment basin. After an extensive research and consulting process, the Lake Tanganyika Regional Integrated Management Programme (LTRIMP) started its first implementation phase in 2008.

Despite the efforts conservationists trying to protect and conserve indigenous plant and animal life in Eastern Africa, the destruction of natural habitats is continuing. In many cases this destruction leaves behind degraded sites which require replacement of lost elements of the original ecosystem. Habitat restoration techniques can now be employed to repair damage to the diversity and dynamics of original ecosystem processes that sustain life on earth. The need for habitats restoration is one of the key areas of activities recommended in the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Launched in 2006, the Global Initiative for West, Central and Southern Africa (GI WACAF Project) is a cooperation between the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and IPIECA, the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues. It aims to assist 22 African countries in strengthening their capacity to prepare for and respond to marine oil spills. To achieve its objectives, the Project implements capacity building activities in collaboration with relevant national authorities and in partnership with local business units.

Water has long been ignored by international climate conferences. However, COP21 (Paris, 2015) and COP22 (Marrakech, 2016) saw the organization of official high-level events on water and climate and the launch of a Global Climate Action Agenda (GCAA) dedicated to water, with four Alliances created to implement it: the Global Alliances for Water and Climate (GAWC), gathering the Basin Alliance ( Paris Pact ), the Business Alliance, the Alliance of Megacities and the Desalination Alliance. The International Network of Basin Organizations (INBO) is in charge of the Secretariat of the GAWC.

The Rhone Mediterranean Corsica Water Agency is a public institution of the French State, under the supervision of the Ministry of Environment. Six basin-agencies were created in France in 1964, according to the country 's six major rivers, as part of a first water law that introduced two founding concepts: (1) Integrated Water Resources Management, (2) the polluter-pays principle / consumer-pays principle. The Rhone Mediterranean Corsica Water Agency territory is located downstream of Lake Geneva, on the Rhone basin and all the French rivers that flow into the Mediterranean Sea.

NatureUganda in parternship with World Wide Fund for Nature - Eastern and Southern Africa Programme Office (WWF - ESARPO) is coordinating this Education for Sustainable Development - East Africa Programme as part of the Lake Victoria Catchment Environmental Education Project (LVCEEP). The programme is addressing children's rights to education and health with a focus on food security, a healthy environment, clean water and sanitation.

Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) was established in 2003 after a fatal scabies skin disease outbreak in critically endangered mountain gorillas in Uganda was traced back to rural communities who have inadequate healthcare. In 2007, CTPH started an integrated Population, Health and Environment (PHE) program to promote biodiversity conservation at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP).

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) was specially formulated to stimulate the necessary reforms in the agriculture sector and bring agriculture toward the support of socio-economic growth and sustainable development. CAADP is Africa 's policy framework for agriculture and agriculture-led development. It is an integral part of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

Increasing demand for animal-source foods, the diminishing agricultural land in relation to the growing human population and the impact of climatic variability are together placing increased pressure on the natural resource base on which agricultural production depends.

The Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Network (BES-Net) is a capacity building network of networks that promotes dialogue among science, policy and practice for more effective management of biodiversity and ecosystems, contributing to long-term human well-being and sustainable development. BES-Net is hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and implemented through partnerships with the Norwegian Environment Agency, SwedBio at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, and Germany's Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB).