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GEF Consultation - Illegal Wildlife Trade: A Civil Society Organisation perspective

Workshop
16 December 2019
Washington D.C.

The GEF Council selected Illegal Wildlife Trade: A CSO perspective as a topic to be discussed during the GEF Consultations with Civil Society on Monday, December 16, 2019, the day preceding the 57th Council meeting. These Consultations are organised by the GEF Secretariat in collaboration with the CSO Network, the GEF Small Grants Programme, the Indigenous Peoples Advisory Group (IPAG) and the World Bank, implementing agency of the GEF-financed Global Wildlife Program (GWP).

The consultations aim to bring civil society, GEF Council members and other stakeholders together to discuss the threats posed by Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) and the possible solutions to this global threat, by focusing on the active and positive engagement of rural communities, civil society organisations (CSOs), indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC), working with government, the private sector and other relevant stakeholders. 

The purpose of the CSO consultation meeting was to bring community voices to the GEF council members, and to highlight experiences of how communities and community-based organisations are coping and solving issues related to wildlife poaching, wildlife conflicts and other natural resources management issues, and to reinforce the message  that communities must be considered as key actors in GEF financed projects and activities.