Our Mission and Objectives

To conduct research in order to enhance understanding of conservation through the use of wild living resources and to influence policy and practice accordingly. See our networking and other activities here and on Facebook.

 
ESUG Meets in Brussels on 31 May 2023
31 May 2023

After being unable to meet during the Covid-19 pandemic, ESUG at last brought its members together, by Teams and physically, in Brussels during 0900-1315 CEST on Wednesday 31 May 2023, in new FACE headquarters (conveniently opposite DG Environment). The meeting was preceded on May 30 by the closing event of two GWCT-led projects, PARTRIDGE & BEESPOKE, on how sustainable use can restore biodiversity by working with communities of interest and local communities (a video of the event is well worth watching) and by a Biodiversity WG meeting of International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey.

 

Papers for the ESUG General Meeting were as follows:

The Meeting Agenda

The Meeting on Screen

Minutes of the Meeting in Croatia on 24 April 2019

Report of the Chair

Report from Ukraine

Financial Report

Candidates for Chair and Committee

Draft minutes from the meeting will be uploaded here soon.

 
ESUG at IAF Conference in Abu Dhabi
27 Sep 2022

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.

 
Cooperation across IUCN for IPBES Plenary 9
09 Jul 2022

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.

 
Beyond Farmer Clusters
03 May 2022

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.

 
Africa's Voice Heard in Europe
26 Apr 2022

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.

 

Governance

 ESUG is governed by its members, who delegate responsibility between general meetings to an elected Chairperson, currently Dr Julie Ewald of the UK, and Committee, currently Dr Tetiana Gardashuk (Ukraine), Dr David Scallan (Belgium), Dr Viktor Šegrt (Croatia), Prof Sándor Csányi (Hungary), Dr Frank Vorhies (UK) and Prof Robert Kenward (UK); Robin Sharp CB is Chair Emeritus. ESUG has since founding had a part time Secretariat c/o EBCD, Rue de la Science 10, 1000-Brussels; offices are also in Japan & UK.

 

Activities

Effectively, the group works through projects to produce knowledge tools for conservation through sustainable use of biodiversity, either as

  1. Policy documents and instruments for governments, or
  2. Software tools, including web-portals, to distribute knowledge

 

Patrons of ESUG 

We are profoundly grateful to the following for their generous support of our work for 2019-20, which has already enabled a Climate Change page & will give 12 more languages on  www.naturalliance.org:

Federation of Associations for Hunting & Conservation of the EU

British Association for Shooting & Conservation

Chair of Anatrack Ltd

Robin Sharp CB