Seven ESUG members attended a 3-day conference in Abu Dhabi on "The Significance of Indigenous People and Local Communities in linking Intangible Cultural Heritage and Wildlife Conservation". This event marked the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between IUCN and the International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey (IAF) on raptor conservation and stakeholder networking. Adrian Lombard, Elizabeth Leix, Alessandra Oliveto, Janusz Sielicki, Julian Mühle, Robert Kenward and Véronique Blontrock were all speakers and joined many young falconers for a training workshop on running our networks. Janusz launched IAF's new conservation network and presentations from the conference are available for access here.

Members of SULi and SUME (here Gabriela Lichtenstein & Julian Mühle) worked with Team-IUCN at Plenary 9 of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Bonn during 3-9 July 2022. A main task of Plenary 9 was to approve the IPBES Assessment of Sustainable Use of Biodiversity, which was started in 2017 and exceeds 1100 pages. An advance version of the 30-page Summary for Policy Makers (SPM) is available online already with a press release from IPBES. The STM is now also covered in a two-page review for SULi and SUME members; comments on the two-pager are welcome, to help prepare for adding much material to our Naturalliance network when IPBES publishes the full six-chapter assessment.

Not content with encouraging farmers to work together in ‘Farmer Clusters’ of about 10 farms, for which UK government’s Natural England provided a facilitation fund, the Game and Wildlife Trust has now managed the launch of a much larger grouping at river catchment scale. Expected to cover over 40,000 hectares – or around one third the area of all England’s National Nature Reserves - the Environmental Farmers Group (EFG) is the first of its kind in the UK, with 80 farmers united to deliver biodiversity recovery, clean water in the River Avon, and net zero farming by 2040. The river Avon is the largest chalk-water system in England, and stunningly productive of salmonid species if the conditions are right. The Farm Clusters now linking for the Environmental Farmers Group have already increased populations of wading birds and other farmland species. Cooperations of stakeholders like this are probably the best way to sustain rural ecosystem services.

The Intergroup of the European Parliament on Biodiversity, Hunting, Countryside held an event in Brussels on “Is Africa’s Voice being Heard? Hunting, Conservation and Livelihoods”. Under the chairing of IUCN Councillor Ali Kaka, from Kenya, The Hon Pohamba Shifeta, Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism in Namibia, was joined at the podium by Ambassadors to the EU from Botswana and Zambia, and on video by Dr Rogers Lubilo of the Community Leaders Network of Southern Africa. A recording shows that Africa’s voice badly needs to be heard. Dr Dilys Roe, chair of SULi, added many good points on the importance of hunting for communities and conservation, in a concluding panel discussion with Jorge Rodriguez Romero of European Commission and Ivonne Higuero of CITES.

The 35^th Congress of the International Union of Game Biologists has opened in Budapest, combined with a number of other key events within the framework of the One With Nature World Exhibition. Of special interest to ESUG members, some of whom may remember our meeting in Hungary in 1999, is the 15^th Perdix Congress and a two day forum of the Collaborative Partnership for Wildlife Management. The latter will take place from mid-day on 26 September through 27 September, with strong participation by SULi and registration for online participation here.