The last few months have been busy ones for the sustainable use indicators process. As I write news is just coming in that the GEF funding proposal for the Biodiversity Indicators Partneship, which has a strong sustainable use component, has cleared another hurdle in the quest for GEF funding. Hopefully we will soon know if there are to be funds to support the development of sustainable use indicators for the CBD 2010 target process. (More about SUSG's work on indicators)

Things have also been hotting up with respect to the arrangements for the October conference on the biological and social impacts of recreational hunting. Much of the burden has been shouldered by Robin Sharp CB, but others are also involved. Kai Wollscheid and I have been looking for funding for presenters to attend the meeting (with moderate success), Bill Adams and Barney Dickson are engaged in the pre-editorial process with Blackwells, who will publish the proceedings in a book that we all believe will be an international best-seller (though perhaps not quite in the league of the Da Vinci Code!) and finally, but far from least, Zsuzsanna Holtsuk has been providing able coordinating services. I hope and expect the SUSG will arrange a meeting that will stand as a landmark in this particular area of sustainable use.

I had rather hoped that we could use the conference as a catalyst to bring together all the SUSG sub-group Chairs, but sadly this will not be possible. The funding will simply not be up to the task. In addition, the two days following the conference will now comprise a very full workshop dedicated to the discussion of standards and certification in recreational hunting, which makes it hard to schedule any significant time to SUSG internal business. However, I am working with others to see if we can arrange a dedicated conference on sustainable use in general, perhaps early in 2007. Time will tell...

With best wishes

Jon Hutton
IUCN SSC Sustainable Use Specialist Group Chair
May 2006

Sustainable, June 2006, contents page