The Sustainable Use Specialist Group of IUCN's Species Survival Commission (SSC) continues to make very significant inputs into the development of important policy processes that will shape the way that people can harvest, market and manage their living wild resources over the next half century. With respect to the work of the SUSG, over the last six months we have focussed in particular on key multilateral environmental agreements, such as the CBD, where we have secured an important supporting role to the work of the CBD Secretariat, the CBD Parties and our colleagues within the wider IUCN family.

I have deliberately emphasised the fact that the SUSG is part of the SSC because our relationship with the SSC, and its sister Species Programme within the IUCN Secretariat, has been fundamental to our success over the years - and I can report with great satisfaction that our relationship with the SSC is at an all time high. Holly Dublin, the Chair of the SSC is not only our 'boss', but also an active member of our Global Concepts Group while Jane Smart, the Head of Species within IUCN, is a proactive supporter of our work. Jane has put our interests at the centre of her efforts to redefine the work of the Wildlife Trade Programme following the departure of Alison Rosser at the end of last year. I am very much hoping that this office, which is conveniently situated in Cambridge (convenient for me, that is!) will soon be able to provide extensive programmatic support on sustainable use. In early December I attended the SSC Steering Committee in Patagonia, Argentina, where we began to work on a vision for the future of sustainable use within the SSC. The minutes of this meeting will be found in due course on the SSC web pages at www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/aboutssc/steering.htm .

Changes

For me, the last six months has been one of frenzied activity and fundamental change. In November, after 13 fascinating and extremely rewarding years, I left ResourceAfrica and gave up my position as Africa Director at FFI to join UNEP as Director of its World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). In terms of Geography, it was clear from the outset that this move wouldn't impact me much. ResourceAfrica (EU), FFI and UNEP-WCMC are all based in Cambridge - I would simply turn left instead of right after leaving the village of Haslingfield where I live, and I could be in the office in 15 minutes. On the other hand, I was worried that the additional responsibility might impact on my work with the SSC and in particular my Chairing of the SUSG, as well as my research and writing with colleagues such as Bill Adams and Barney Dickson. So far, however, the situation is not as bad as I feared. I have had to give up some of the lecturing outside of Cambridge, but the interests of the SSC and the SUSG overlap with those of UNEP-WCMC and with some careful planning it may be able to create new partnerships to boost our work. This has already been possible in the field of the '2010 Target' to reduce the loss of biodiversity where UNEP-WCMC has a strong mandate from the CBD for work that includes a detailed consideration of 'Sustainable Use Indicators'.

Indicators

'Sustainable Use Indicators' are an important part of the international effort to meet the 2010 target for biodiversity endorsed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development a couple of years ago. How will we know if we have reduced the rate of decline in biodiversity loss if we have no baselines of biodiversity, its use and disappearance? This is the problem the international community faces, and Holly is mobilising the Species Survival Commission, in all its guises, to help address it. The CBD Parties wisely included sustainable use in its processes, and established three sub-targets for 2010 (See www.biodiv.org decision CoP7/30 and more easily Barney Dickson's article 'Sustainable Use Targets and Indicators' in this issue of Sustainable)), but the SUSG was far from happy that these were a) clear and unambiguous, and b) amenable to measurement. As a result we stepped up our work in this area, and on January 16th and 17th the SUSG and UNEP-WCMC held a joint workshop to review the situation with respect to sustainable use indicators. In this issue of 'Sustainable' Barney Dickson and Robin Sharp CB report on some of the processes that we have been engaged in, including the workshop.

Regional bias?

This brings me to the most important issue facing the SUSG at the moment. Over the last 6 months it has become clear that we most emphatically do not have sufficient resources to maintain a fully effective network of regional groups. Rather ironically, although it gave great service at the time, it seems that the SUSG as created in the 1990s with its membership in 18 regions was not itself sustainable! It is my greatest regret that while in the Chair I have not been able to secure funding to keep regional sub-groups operating at full tilt. Of course, it is not all bad news in the regions. A few, Europe, North America and Southern Africa in particular, have identified their niche and different ways to keep working on sustainable use issues. The ESUSG in particular provides key services to the broader SUSG. You will see some of their work reported in this bulletin. However, I have a major problem with the fact that our policy work is increasingly focussed in the 'North', and in Cambridge in particular. The SUSG has an important role to play in the field of international policy, but this MUST be informed by the regions. When it comes to Sustainable Use, perspectives and practices vary enormously and the group was originally developed to reflect broad global interests. Somehow we have to have ways for the regions to feed into, and benefit from, our work at the centre.

I will be discussing the issue of representation with Holly over the next few weeks, and hope to prepare relevant proposals for submission to donors and other partners.

Hunting Symposium

Finally - I especially want to bring to your attention the international conference that the SUSG is organising on the biological and social impacts of recreational hunting which will be held in London in October of this year.

Best wishes

Jon Hutton
IUCN SSC Sustainable Use Specialist Group Chair
January 2006

Sustainable, January 2006, contents page