Project Predator

INTERPOL's Environmental Crime Programme along with the World Bank and partners launched Project Predator during the 80th General Assembly. The project seeks to work with the 13 tiger-range countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar/Burma, Nepal, Thailand, Viet Nam and the Russian Federation to organize collaborative, high-level international efforts to improve political will, transform this will into departmental support, and train officers in the necessary skills. The Project also calls for countries to establish National Tiger Crime Task Forces, which it hopes will encourage the use of modern, intelligence-led enforcement practices for tiger conservation.

While not limited to the protection of tigers, it will also undertake initiatives and advocacy for all Asian “big cats,” including leopards, snow leopards, clouded leopards and Asiatic lions, which are are traded in the same manner as tiger parts.

  

Tiger Conservation Initiative

During its 80th Assembly, Interpol along with the World Bank and other partners launched Project Predator, an initiative to protect and save the world’s last surviving wild tigers by uniting the efforts of police, customs and wildlife officials in the 13 states in Asia. The program will commence with a meeting of senior police and customs officials from tiger range states, scheduled to be held in Bangkok (Thailand) from 13-14 February 2012.

G20 Summit: Green Growth?

Federal Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, and the Heads of five international agencies (OECD, WTO, ILO, IMF, and the World Bank) met in Berlin (Germany) on 6 October to call for coordinated policy action to restore confidence and improve sustainable and balanced growth and employment prospects ahead of the G20 Summit to be held in Cannes (France) on 3-4 November. According to a statement, "climate change and the protection of natural resources remain major challenges that could also become an opportunity for growth. Leaders stressed the need to: realize the potential for low-carbon development and green growth by targeted action in developed and developing countries; continue with the commitment of all international organizations to promote and work together on green growth; and ensure a successful Durban Climate Change Conference in late 2011 with a view to further promoting low-carbon development strategies."
Press Release with Joint Communique

World Bank: Low Emissions Development

The World Bank convened close to 70 senior policy makers and opinion leaders from around the world to a High-Level Dialogue on Low Emissions Development Policy Implementation on 13 July in Washington, D.C (USA). During the event, speakers identified poverty and climate change as the two defining challenges of this century, warning against the risk of reversing any gains on poverty if climate change is not addressed.
Dialogue Website

New Publication on Forest Governance

FAO and the World Bank's Program on Forests (PROFOR) have released a publication titled : "Framework for Assessing and Monitoring Forest Governance." By drawing on several approaches currently in use in major forest governance-related processes and initiatives, the framework is intended to be used by governmental and non-governmental actors involved in forest governance.

The publication describes the design, structure and elements of the framework, as well as its subcomponents, including: policy, legal, institutional and regulatory frameworks; planning and decision-making processes; and implementation, enforcement and compliance.

World Bank: Afforestation and Reforestation in CDM

The Biocarbon Fund, managed by the World Bank, has published a report titled: "BioCarbon Fund Experience: Insights from Afforestation/Reforestation Clean Development Mechanism Projects."

World Bank Approves "Save our Species Program"

The World Bank approved a US$4.9 million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to support five years of Save our Species (SOS) work, complemented by an additional US$5 million from the World Bank’s Development Grant Facility.

SOS aims to tackle the challenge of biodiversity loss by matching financial support from private business with international conservation expertise and countries facing species extinction. SOS is establishing a grants program, with grants ranging from US$25,000 to US$800,000 awarded to civil society organizations able to show strong conservation outcomes for threatened species. More than 60 grants are expected to be made over five years.

SOS Project Website

Global Tiger Recovery Program: Implementation Phase

The Global Tiger Forum (GTF), Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) and India's National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) announced the launch of the implementation phase of the Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP) during the International Conference on Tiger Conservation and Global Workshop on GTRP Implementation. The Conference took place in New Delhi (India) from 28-30 March 2011.

GTI Press Release
World Bank Press Release

SWIOF: 5th Session

The 5th session of the South West Indian Fisheries Commission (SWIOF) took place from 13-16 March 2011, in Male (Maldives). The session included delegates from the region as well as observers from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the World Bank.

GEF Press Release

ICCWC: Programme of Work

The Senior Experts Group of the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (launched during the International Tiger Conservation Forum in November 2010) recently met to agree its programme of work for 2011. [UNODC Press Release] [CITES Press Release]

World Bank: Linking Natural Resource Management and Wealth of Nations

As part of an initiative by World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick called the Global Partnership for Ecosystems Valuation and Wealth Accounting, the World Bank has released a book titled "The Changing Wealth of Nations," The book contends that most countries are relatively highly dependent on natural capital initially, and the ones that progress most successfully are those that manage their assets for the long term and reinvest in human and social capital as well as in building strong institutions and systems of governance.