SCI Foundation continues to raise the bar for sustainable use conservation in Africa with record-breaking African Wildlife Consultative Forum
On November 1, the SCI Foundation concluded our 22nd annual African Wildlife Consultative Forum (AWCF) in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Hosted in partnership with the South Africa Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and Environment, the 2024 AWCF featured a record 104 registered attendees from ten countries gathering for collaborative discussions about the most critical issues facing sustainable use, wildlife conservation, and community livelihoods across southern and eastern Africa. In addition to government representatives, professional hunting associations, community organizations and leading researchers from the region, the meeting was attended by top officials from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service including Director Martha Williams and Assistant Director for International Affairs Dr. Hila Levy. We also hosted representatives of the Southern African Development Community, a key regional political association for southern Africa.
The AWCF concept is based on providing an open forum for discussion among important regional stakeholders to derive common solutions to shared challenges. This year’s meeting was sharply focused on defining common concerns and tangible outcomes in six crucial areas: the social acceptance of hunting as a component of conservation, building a sustainable wildlife economy in Africa, increasing community engagement and benefits from wildlife, managing and conserving elephants, rhinoceros conservation, and research and management of African big cats. Expert working groups in each of these areas met over three days to formulate common concerns and goals for the AWCF community. Common themes included the maintenance of regulated trade in wildlife to enhance conservation and livelihoods, the importance of science-based wildlife management for conservation for many species, increased capacity building and empowerment of local communities in the wildlife economy, the growing concern and impacts of human-wildlife conflict, and having a strong, united voice in international conservation policy arenas.
Since the first meeting in 2002 in Kasane, Botswana, AWCF has been the foremost gathering on the continent for leaders in sustainable wildlife conservation. Over the past 22 years, the challenges facing wildlife conservation in Africa have grown even as the nations of the region continue to be worldwide leaders in conserving some of our most iconic species. SCI Foundation is proud to be able to support those efforts through the AWCF and our other programs in Africa. This year will be especially important, with the recently announced Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Conference of the Parties in Samarkand in November/December 2025 and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi in October. As it has for the last two decades, AWCF will provide a forum for African range states and others concerned with wildlife conservation and sustainable use to meet and agree on policy goals and strategies for these critical international policy events. We look forward to meeting in September or October 2025 in beautiful Livingstone, Zambia, situated close to the magnificent Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River. As always, we are deeply grateful for the support of the Hunter Legacy Fund and the other supporters of SCIF that make AWCF possible and allow us to always be First for Wildlife.
