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New guide to successful partnerships for conservation and development

31-03-2008

Conservation challenges at IBAs often require BirdLife Partners to work with other organisations with complementary skills. A new BirdLife report, Building Partnerships: Working together for conservation and development, looks at the many different alliances which have enabled BirdLife Partners around the world to achieve their goals.

Based on a review of 16 case studies, the report examines the nature of the relationships BirdLife Partners have formed, and explores the importance of these “cross-sectoral” alliances in delivering biodiversity conservation, promoting sustainable use of natural resources, and improving the livelihoods of local communities living in and around IBAs. It identifies some of the difficulties and challenges of working in partnership, and summarises the key lessons learned.

“...organisations we have worked with have benefited equally from the BirdLife Partnership's rapidly growing body of conservation and development expertise” —David Thomas, Head of the Site Action Unit at BirdLife International

The case studies show the wide diversity of organisations that Birdlife Partners work with. These can include:    

  • Local and central government agencies (Rural District Council in Zimbabwe; Forestry Services Division in Ghana; Ministry of Environment in Jordan; Ministry of Public Health in El Salvador; and Police Departments of West and East Sumba in Indonesia);
  • NGOs with a focus on both conservation and development (Kulika Charitable Trust of Uganda; Organisation of Bolivian Tisanes Indigenous Communities in Bolivia; CARE Myanmar and Hill Ecosystem Conservation Association in Myanmar; Dodwell Trust-Mitondrasoa in Madagascar);
  • Research institutes (Food and Research Institute of Ghana; National Museums of Kenya);
  • The business sector (Richards Bay Minerals in South Africa; Lebanese Adventure in Lebanon).

These alliances have proved to be a powerful tool for delivering conservation, promoting sustainable use of natural resources, and improving the livelihoods of local communities living in and around IBAs.

“Among other benefits, working in such partnerships exposes BirdLife to new approaches and so widens our outlook on problem-solving,” said the report's co-author and editor David Thomas, Head of the Site Action Unit at BirdLife International. “This is, of course, a two-way process, and the organisations we have worked with have benefited equally from the BirdLife Partnership's rapidly growing body of conservation and development expertise.”

David Thomas added: “The primary purpose of the report is to share experiences and support lesson-learning within the BirdLife International Partnership. But because the lessons learned are of broad relevance to those working on biodiversity conservation and development issues, we are also offering them to a wider audience.”

Click here to download the full report…

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See Also

IBA website

Download the Building Partnerships Report

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