IUCN Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group

What is SULi?

The IUCN Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group (SULi) is a global volunteer network formed by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2012, as a joint initiative of the Species Survival Commission (SSC) and the Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP). It aims to mobilise global expertise across the science, policy and practice sectors to address the urgent challenges of overexploitation of wild species and support robust, equitable models of sustainable use that meet human needs and priorities.

What is sustainable use?

By sustainable use we mean use of these species at a level that maintains their potential to meet current and future human needs and aspirations, and prevents their long-term decline. It further requires avoiding or reducing to acceptable levels any adverse or unintended impacts on the broader ecosystem, consistent with long term species and ecosystem conservation. Sustainable use includes both extractive forms of use (e.g., wildlife hunting, plant harvesting, fishing) and non extractive (e.g., the watching, identifying, photographing of wild species).

What are livelihoods?

Quite simply, a livelihood is means of making a living and securing the necessities of life. People’s livelihoods vary according to their cultures and aspirations and according to the assets they have to draw on – including land and natural resources, social networks and support systems, finance, personal attributes and capabilities and physical and physical assets such as roads, vehicles, telecommunications. In SULi we are predominantly concerned with the livelihoods of rural communities who live with and alongside wildlife and count on it as a real or potential asset that can support their livelihoods.

We recognise that achieving sustainable use – and ensuring it contributes to local peoples’ livelihoods –requires insights from far beyond the traditional realm of conservation biology, including (but not confined to) governance, social sciences, economics and political ecology. SULi brings together an exceptionally diverse range of technical expertise, across these and across the divides of science, policy and practice and works with partners at all levels.