Sahel & Sahara

Interest Group

Every year, Sahara Conservation brings together hundreds of professionals interested in the conservation of the wildlife and landscapes of the Sahel and the Sahara.

The Sahel & Sahara Interest Group (SSIG) plays a unique role as a forum for people to meet, network, share information and build strong partnerships for the Sahel and Sahara conservation.

The meeting

Facilitated by Sahara Conservation, the meeting promotes collaboration and the sharing of solutions that seek to improve outcomes for biodiversity and society throughout the Sahara and the Sahel, ranging from grass roots conservation to influencing national and international policy and decision-making. Equally important, is encouraging and enabling the next generation change-makers by providing opportunities for emerging conservation researchers and actors to present their work, and engage with established leaders in their fields.

Participants represent a wide range of stakeholders with an interest in people and the natural world across the region, including universities and research centres, zoological institutions, museums, and non-governmental organisations, together with statutory and inter-governmental agencies.

Over a hundred participants from more than 20 countries, committed to actively sharing information, resources, and skills, attend the event every year.

History

The formation of the SSIG is at heart of Sahara Conservation’s origins.

In 2000, a small workshop of 20 people was convened in Marwell zoo, in the United Kingdom, to explore ways to support the Convention on Migratory Species’ plan (CMS), formulated in Djerba in 1998, for the conservation of six endangered sahelo-saharian antelopes.

The Wildlife of the Sahel and the Sahara were facing an alarming, unprecedented extinction crisis, with no recognition nor action from the international conservation scene.

The workshop resulted in the establishment of the SSIG as an informal action and information sharing forum to drive and monitor work going forward

Since then, SSIG and its descendant, Sahara Conservation, have implemented dozens of project and activities in support of the CMS action plan.

Past meetings and proceedings

Since its creation, the meeting has become an annual forum bringing together hundreds of conservation practitioners and organizations to share their work on Sahelian and Saharan species and habitats, and creating a unique and powerful network of actors from all walks of society and from all range states.

Beyond the Sahel and the Sahara, SSIG interests extend to all types of arid lands fauna, flora, and traditional land-use practices necessary for the maintenance of healthy and productive desert ecosystems.