(Kasane, Botswana) – Today marks the first day of the 19th annual African Wildlife Consultative Forum (AWCF), hosted this year by the Botswana Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourismâs Department of Wildlife and National Parks in Kasane.
AWCF is a collaborative conference, organized by the Safari Club International Foundation (SCIF), for African wildlife officials to work in partnership with the private hunting industry, community-support organizations, NGOs that support sustainable use, policy experts, other wildlife managers, and biologists from across southern and eastern Africa.
Together, over the next five days, these diverse stakeholders will seek to address the most pressing wildlife conservation and international policy issues facing the African continent.
These issues include but are not limited to the importance and promotion of international hunting, human-wildlife conflict, the proliferation of import bans on legally harvested wildlife in Africa, the implementation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), anti-poaching efforts, and big cat research.
âAWCF is one of the most impactful initiatives SCIF is able to organize because it reminds the world that Africans themselves are the best stewards of the continentâs wildlife and habitat at a time where western countries are increasingly prone to dictating conservation policies to these sovereign nations,â said SCIF CEO, W. Laird Hamberlin.
SCIFâs Conservation Manager and organizer of the AWCF Joe Goergen also commented on the conferenceâs kick-off today saying, âItâs great to finally be celebrating in Botswana! AWCF is, and has been since its inception here in 2002, a summit dedicated to collaboration among different stakeholder groups all working together for Africa wildlife and people.â
The discussions that will take place here over the next five days will have direct consequences on how African nations work with global sustainable use advocates to better manage and protect wildlife species and their natural habitat.
Click HERE to learn more about the 19th Annual AWCF and to HERE to watch SCIF President Craig Kauffmanâs opening remarks.
