An Overview Of Our Solution
With over one-third of the planet’s land used for agriculture—and over one-quarter used for livestock grazing—farms and ranches offer both a great threat and a tremendous opportunity for wildlife conservation. Applying strategies to protect key species on agricultural lands is critical to the viability of wildlife populations, especially as open space diminishes and once-remote areas become accessible. By offering scientifically-sound, measurable standards to agricultural producers round the world, Certified Wildlife Friendly™ increases the credibility and raises the profile of farm-level wildlife stewardship to producers and consumers alike. Through this approach, the Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network (WFEN) works to support both communities and wildlife alike by creating incentives for sound ecological management of farm and ranch lands around the world.
Who is this solution impacting?
Community Type
Urban
Suburban
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: Africa
General Information
Organization type
Nonprofit
Ecosystem (select all that apply)
Deserts
Forests
Freshwater
Grasslands
Oceans/Coasts
Urban/Built Environment
Population impacted
Over 270,000 people globally
Challenge
Size of agricultural area
Over 13 million hectares globally
Production quantity
Varies by enterprise. Annually: 102,000kg+
essential oils, 600kg+ goat dairy products, 200,000lbs+ beef, 60,000lbs+ pork, 80,000lbs+ poultry, 300+ tons biofuel, 180kg+ cashmere, 100,000kg+ wool, 500m+ silk textile, 300+ tons rice, 800,000 sheets paper...
People employed
Over 84,300 people globally
Solution
Describe your solution
Wildlife Friendly™ certification provides best practice guidelines for farming and ranching enterprises who seek to generate environmentally-sustainable employment and food security in some of the most critical biodiversity hotspots on the planet. Our certification is a trusted label that guides consumers towards products that genuinely contribute to biodiversity conservation. Consumers are willing to pay a small premium for these products, and the stories behind the products build consumer brand loyalty as well as open access to new markets, bringing benefits to local communities. Incentivizing best practices across the landscape works to ensure positive conservation outcomes and increased tolerance for wildlife. Wildlife Friendly™ farmers and ranchers possess a strong conservation ethic and many have been willing to change practices to achieve certification--enterprises have opted to prohibit trophy hunting, put in place monitoring programs, and provided new benefits for communities. Ibis Rice™ supports communities to grow a high-end premium rice, protecting critical wetlands in Cambodia, and gives a share of rice and profits to farming villages. New business enterprises are forming now around the idea of Wildlife Friendly™ from inception including Jungle Organics™, working with women growing premium spices on the edge of India’s Jim Corbett National Park using practices that conserve corridors for leopards, tigers, and other species.
Implementation
Describe your implementation
WFEN offers a range of certification programs that promote best practice standards for farming and ranching enterprises around the world including Certified Wildlife Friendly™, Predator Friendly™, and Elephant Friendly™, with Jaguar Friendly™ and Gorilla Friendly™ in development as well. These standards represent global best practice with input from the appropriate experts to ensure that a) key species of wildlife are protected for net positive impact and b) local communities are actively involved. Interested enterprises find our program through our website/social media, word of mouth, or via a conservation NGO. WFEN does preliminary research including any context-specific issues that may apply. Initial conversations may proceed to a two-stage application process and review by the WFEN Certification Committee. The application process is interactive including follow-up questions and sharing of other case studies for cross-learning. Once an enterprise has been certified, WFEN issues a joint press release and identifies new markets for products including promotion to distributers, retail outlets & customers. To ensure that certified enterprises continue to meet our criteria, we facilitate 2nd- and 3rd-party audits which may be unannounced. WFEN also provides technical assistance, and stays in communication with enterprises concerning community engagement and worker welfare. Enterprises are most successful when they leverage strong community involvement, collaborate with a local conservation organization, and are dedicated to the conservation of wildlife. Our biggest obstacle has been funding 3rd party audits, costs related to trademark protection and infringement, resources to produce necessary educational materials, and consulting time spent advising and promoting enterprises—WFEN is addressing this by partnering with retailers to receive a ‘conservation’ or ‘wildlife friendly’ royalty which is a small percentage of end user sales to help offset our operational costs.
External connections
The involvement of wildlife conservation and sustainable development experts has been critical in the evolution of WFEN and associated standards. In March 2007, 50 experts met to share experiences of promoting an economic and business oriented approach to wildlife conservation with transparent links to livelihood improvements in several of the most important landscapes around the globe. The concept of the Wildlife FriendlyTM certification as an umbrella brand to tell these rich stories to consumers was discussed, and in late 2007 the Steering Committee launched the WFEN as a 501(c)(3) non profit, and became the Network’s Board of Directors. WFEN’s work overlaps with the forestry, agricultural, fisheries (through our Sea Turtle Friendly™ pilot initiative this year), conservation finance, and tourism sectors. Our work supplements and exceeds local and national policies and regulations in many places where we work; in some countries there is active discussion about agricultural agencies and provincial governments adopting Wildlife Friendly™ guidelines as their official policy, and in others our efforts have received formal endorsement by country government wildlife agencies. We partner with the tourism industry, global fashion brands, and others to improve upon and implement best practice guidelines for wildlife and communities across a wide range of products. Our trustmark is compatible with and complimentary to others in common use such as FSC and Rainforest Alliance.
Results
What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?
Agricultural production poses many threats for global biodiversity with examples that include loss and fragmentation of critical habitat, land conversion and fencing, killing of predators that cause livestock losses, and chemical use. In many communities, a lack of economic opportunity results in hunting or poaching of wildlife as a means to survive. While best practices have been implemented in some places, these guidelines are not always accessible to farmers working in some of the most challenging places for human-wildlife conflict who may see solutions as too expensive to implement, even when available. However there is a growing community of producers who strive to minimize impacts on biodiversity and a growing consumer segment which gravitates to products that contribute to wildlife conservation. WFEN seeks to minimize barriers to entry for farmers making truly Wildlife FriendlyTM products, and their respective markets, a reality.
Describe the context in which you are operating
We support 30+ enterprises across 5 continents, and the contexts at our project sites vary greatly. However, there are some common threads between them: Many of our enterprises are located in rural areas where a lack of employment opportunity, civil conflict, and reduced access to food has resulted in poaching of wildlife as an easy and profitable food source. Some of our communities struggle with a lack of access to basic necessities, and poor educational and livelihood opportunities for women. A changing climate, overgrazing, and increased pressure from industries such as mining and large-scale monoculture agriculture has made it difficult for many of our subsistence farmers to maintain their way of life. Even for our enterprises in North America, pressure from increased development has put predators and other species of wildlife in close proximity to livestock and crops, and in all cases it can be challenging to balance the protection of wildlife with the generation of revenue.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
Our enterprises contribute to in situ conservation of key species, and the world’s experts vet and contribute to our standards. For example, our Elephant Friendly™ tea standards are based on recommendations by the IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group and other experts on the region and species; our tea growers support local ecosystems through smallholder-based organic practices, and protect elephants by requiring Elephant Friendly™ irrigation systems, as drainage ditches are a cause of mortality. Jungle Organics™ in India is sourcing high quality spices from critical corridors for tigers & leopards across agricultural lands, and works with communities to protect biodiversity. And Ibis Rice™ protects wetlands, waterbirds, & water resources in Cambodia through agreements with community members and farmers and by adding EU & USDA organic certification as a requirement. WFEN requires wildlife monitoring to ensure that the production is not resulting in local population declines.
Language(s)
English
Water
WFEN enterprises protect water resources by restricting chemicals, preserving watersheds, and preventing deforestation. In the Philippines, Mt. Kitanglad Agri-Development Corp. takes a ‘ridge-to-reef’ approach protecting communities downstream, growing Wildlife Friendly™ pineapples using catchment basins, soil retaining structures, stream buffers, and limits pesticides while encouraging IPM. There is a tribal agreement to protect upland forest through protection of this critical watershed.
Food Security/Nutrition
Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) works with 61,000+ Zambian farmers across 70,000+ sq. km. COMACO uses Wildlife Friendly™ standards and It’s Wild branding to provide higher prices for farmers who abandon poaching for training in conservation farming techniques. Proceeds are reinvested to achieve food security, increase rural income, and improve resource management. Products include rice, soy protein supplement, peanut butter, and honey which are marketed locally and regionally
Economic/Sustainable Development
Over 40 tons of Ibis Rice™ is sold annually to local luxury hotels, and soon to export markets, at a nearly 30% premium. The project expects to generate a return of 40-50% which will be reinvested in local communities. In Argentina, Merino de Peninsula Valdés has sheared and processed 3,000 kg of Wildlife Friendly™ wool for the sustainable fashion market, supporting ranchers who are working to minimizing stocking rates and ranch in coexistence with native species like Guanacos and Rheas.
Climate
Intercropping, terracing and other methods used by Mt. Kitanglad Agri-Development Corporation (MKADC) have protected their plantations and downstream communities from floods which are increasing in frequency & intensity as a result of climate change, when others were decimated by typhoons. Wildlife Works in Kenya is a REDD+ project which uses carbon credits to provide new job opportunities, including small-scale horticulture as well as eco-factories as alternatives to unsustainable agriculture.
Sustainability
WFEN was formed to test the idea that enterprises could generate support for on-the-ground conservation to supplement grant funding. As such, Wildlife Friendly™ enterprises use marketplace power to generate support for conservation. In addition, WFEN receives operational funding from Corporate Network Members, for whom we provide consulting services, and income from logo licensing fees, application fees, and possibly in the future from a small percentage of Wildlife Friendly™ product sales – a model we are currently testing. WFEN also does site-based project work with foundation funding or grants from other NGOs, which allow us to conduct pilot audits, write & refine standards, and develop related educational & branding materials.
Return on investment
Across WFEN enterprises, total activities have cost millions of dollars paid for with seed funding from foundations, grants, and private support. Increasingly, a Wildlife Friendly™ approach is looked to as a model for reducing human-wildlife conflict, providing alternative livelihood opportunities, & reducing supply chain risk. Our model demonstrates the power of using focal species as consumer-facing branding to tell stories of conservation & communities. Our model also showcases the utility of certification as a tool to incentivize conservation in economically disadvantaged places. In the hundreds of communities that WFEN’s work touches and for the endangered species our work protects we believe the results are worth the investment.
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Replication and Scale
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
Wildlife Friendly™ solutions are being replicated on agricultural lands and in other contexts all over the world, and this is model and the foundation upon which our work was built. Our first species-focused standard, Gorilla Friendly™, is now being replicated for other at-risk iconic species such as Jaguars, Elephants, and Sea Turtles. On-site training and educational materials, marketing, and storytelling for brands and consumers via our website are all crucial to supporting our mission. Costs also include: the protection and trademarking of proprietary materials in each country where we work; travel costs and staff time incurred to facilitate learning cross-exchanges; field site visits and audits; and the development of new on-the-ground projects and partners, including government and community stakeholders—all of which are essential to forging strong relationships built on trust.