TerraViva 1 Edition

From 12th to 19th of November, the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014 - the global forum on protected areas - took place in Sydney with over 6,000 experts participating at this event from over 170 countries. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) with its Transfrontier Conservation Areas also participated at this meaningful event to contribute their solutions to address today's global challenges on achieving wildlife and nature conservation across borders within the 15 member state countries.

SADC TFCAs represented their most outstanding initiatives related to regional conservation in all streams through a variety of governmental and non-governmental delegates coming from most of the SADC countries. Two side-events were hosted for all participants that directly addressed the role of regional TFCAs to sustain human life and conservation with a focus on (1) income-generation through tourism and (2) the SADC TFCA online portal with possibilities to extend the network. To showcase the regional SADC TFCA programme and to provide a network hub for all participants coming from Southern Africa, an exhibition stand has been successfully organized.

Inter Press Service Africa documented the SADC TFCA participation at the event and published a daily journal on SADC TFCA highlights throughout the eight days of the congress (for access visit IPS Africa: www.ipsnews.net/news/regional-categories/africa/).