Its composed of eight countries in Eastern and Southern Africa - Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda – IGAD’s main purpose is to achieve peace and sustainable development in the region. Rich in biodiversity, IGAD members’ major factors for growth are its natural resources, more specifically fresh water and marine and coastal water ecosystems, forests and wildlife, wetlands, rangelands, arable land and mountains, and minerals and energy resources.

Two of IGAD’s priorities for coastal and marine environments include the support and implementation of the Abidjan and Nairobi Conventions and the African Process for the management of Africa’s coastal and marine resources. In concrete terms, these involve: pollution control and coastal erosion; and promotion of sustainable use of living resources, sustainable management of key habitats and ecosystems and sustainable economic development. Read More

Instruments for Environmental Conservation

- 2007 IGAD Natural Resource and Environment Strategy

Aims to support the harmonisation of natural resource and environmental policies, as well as promote trans-boundary resource management.

- IGAD Natural Resources and Environment Protection Strategy 2016–2020

Its part of IGAD’s five-year regional strategy: developed by conducting extensive baseline studies to identify key issues and challenges in each country, including land, wetland and forest degradation, climate change, population growth, resource governance, lack of investments in development markets and value change, and the ongoing issue of the marginalisation of arid and semi-arid ecosystems

- Regional Biodiversity Policy

Aims to help conserve and sustainably manage biodiversity resources, and foster socioeconomic development for sustainable livelihoods, environmental sustenance, peaceful and secure coexistence, and regional integration through sustainable management of biodiversity resources in the region.

- Regional Biodiversity Protocol

Developed and approved at the Ministerial level in July 2017 to implement the Regional Biodiversity Policy. It provides a guide on how to foster cooperation in the implementation of the regional policy and the issue of sustainable ecosystem development in the region.

- Strategy on Biodiversity Benefit Sharing

Developed and approved at the Ministerial level; promotes sharing biodiversity benefits equitably among the IGAD State members, while respecting the situation of less-endowed countries so as to help develop unity and peace in the region.

- Strategy on Invasive Species Control and Management

Developed and approved at the Ministerial level; addresses the introduction of alien invasive species through controlled expansion, management, use or, where possible, eradication, in particular in agriculture and forestry sectors in the region.

- IGAD Wildlife Management Strategy

Developed and approved at the Ministerial level; provides a joint strategy on how to manage wildlife resources in the region. IGAD Specialized Network: established as part of the IGAD structure to follow up and coordinate wildlife law enforcement activities in the region.

- Djibouti Seascape Management Plan

Developed under the Biodiversity Management Programme, where local community-based marine conservation areas were identified and established.

- Protocol on the Development of Tourism (1998)

The protocol sets out SADC’s objective to build upon the region’s potential as a tourist destination. SADC intends to ensure even distribution of tourism development throughout the region and to create a favourable environment for tourism, thereby using tourism as a vehicle for socioeconomic development.

Biodiversity Management Programme

The main objective is to contribute to poverty reduction by improving the social and economic wellbeing of the populations in IGAD region through a better regional integration in the environmental sector. The programme has 3 components, namely the regional policy development, the regional biodiversity database and information system and capacity development in biodiversity conservation.

With the support of the programme, IGAD has developed a regional Biodiversity Policy, a regional Biodiversity Protocol, and four other related strategies, namely, the IGAD Wildlife Management Strategy, the IGAD Invasive Species Control and Management Strategy, the IGAD Biodiversity Benefits Sharing Strategy and the IGAD Strategy on Domestication of regional Policies and Strategies. It has also supported member states to strengthen / establish national and regional biodiversity databases and information systems.

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