Bird Life International

Bird Life International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations working together for the world's birds and people. It strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources. Bird Life's partners operate in over 100 countries and territories world wide, and over ten million people support the BirdLife Partnership of national non-governmental conservation organisations and local networks. Partners work together on shared priorities, programmes and policies, learning from each other to achieve real conservation results. The BirdLife partnership promotes sustainable living as a means of conserving birds and all other forms of biodiversity.

The SwedBio support to Bird Life International is building on previous support from Sida. The aim of the programme is to work within the expanded regional network of national NGOs in Africa, established by the Bird Life Partnership and supported by the Council for the African Partnership (CAP), to build new and enhanced support and capacity for policy dialogue at local, national, regional and global levels. Bird Life International works through local national Site Support Groups at sites of international significance for biodiversity (Important Bird Areas- IBAs) to establish case studies which illustrate the linkages between poverty reduction and the sustainable use of biodiversity. The programme also includes policy dialogues where local communities and national NGOs in partnership can show governments and intergovernmental organisations examples of success.

SwedBio currently supports the following programme: "Improving the Livelihoods of Local Communities in Africa by Promoting Sustainable Use of Renewable Natural Resources through Increased Participation in Biodiversity Policy Making and Implementation". The project period is from November 2004 - December 2008.

Launch of Swedbio project at BirdLife Council for the African Partnership (CAP):
The Swedbio project which focuses on biodiversity and ecosystem services for local livelihoods and poverty alleviation was launched at the annual meeting of BirdLife International's Council for the African Partnership (CAP) which was held in Cameroon in July, 2005. CAP is the supervisory body of all BirdLife programmes in Africa. It comprises representatives of all BirdLife partners, partner designates and affiliates and holds a general meeting annually.

Proposal guidelines and call for Proposals: The Swedbio project is meant to be implemented by the BirdLife national partner and Local Conservation Groups (LCGs) with support from BirdLife International African Partnership Secretariat. The project budget will support three projects from partners which will be based in three different countries. Nine LCGs (3 from each country) will be directly involved in the implementation of pilot projects. Birdlife International has 18 partners in Africa who are eligible for support by the Swedbio grant. The Birdlife Africa Secretariat developed a call for proposal and grants application forms which, combined, formed clear guidelines for partners for application to Birdlife Secretariat for support for implementing the Swedbio project.

Proposals were received from 7 countries, namely Kenya, Botswana, Burundi, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. The proposals from Kenya, Botswana and Burkina Faso were successful.

Outcomes from the programme so far are:

1. Workshop on Financing Protected Areas of Africa
Read more about the workshop and download the report here

2. BirdLife and the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN)
Read more about the conference here