As WWF’s influence and conservation delivery has grown over the years, it has established itself as one of the key sub-regional players with major engagements and partnerships involving government agencies, regional bodies, UN agencies and local communities.
The region is subject to a number of threats to conservation and livelihoods. The root causes of these threats include human population increase, globalisation and market forces including inappropriate foreign direct investment, poverty, weak institutional capacity and poor governance (both natural resource management and overall).
The impact of these threats and drivers to the sustainable production of ecosystem goods and services is immense. A loss of forest biodiversity, for example, is characterised by altered forest ecosystem structure, composition and functioning. This makes it vulnerable to soil erosion and increased siltation, altered climate regimes and severe loss of species and habitats. A decrease in forest cover has had devastating effects on lake systems. This has been characterised by decline in water availability for domestic and industrial use and in the quality of water downstream.
Eventually, the impact is magnified to include increased resource-use conflicts and high cost of energy.
Conservation Issues
Conservation
WWF has been supporting conservation activities in eastern and southern Africa since the early 1960s. However, the approach has shifted over the years from financing of isolated projects, supporting flagship species protection and protected areas work (mostly executed by other conservation organisations) to ecosystem-based,
landscape-level investments and an integrated view of conservation.
