TSAVO TRUST JOINS THE THRIVING TOGETHER CAMPAIGN TO HIGHLIGHT THE WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT YET IGNORED ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION
The Thriving Together campaign recognizes that family planning is critically important not only for women and girls but also for the environment.
Tsavo Trust joins over 150 other leading environmental and reproductive health organizations to pledge support for a first-of-its-kind campaign: Thriving Together. Organizations that have signed up to the Thriving Together campaign form a diverse global alliance united by the agreement that improving access to family planning services is critically important for the environment and biodiversity.
The Sustainable Development Goals call for integrated solutions. Tsavo Trust along with other organizations backing the Thriving Together campaign agree that whether working in health or environmental conservation, through sharing information and working together on strategic projects and policies, we can help human communities and their ecosystems thrive. Successful biodiversity conservation requires taking people, our health, and our interactions with the natural world into account.
Increasing human pressures are among the many challenges facing planetary health. In addition, by harming ecosystems, people undermine food and water security and human health, and threaten habitats and species. Ensuring family planning is available to all who seek it is among the positive actions organizations must take to lessen these pressures.
The United Nations projects that global population will rise from 7.7 billion today to 9.8 billion by 2050. Future population growth is uncertain however, and highly sensitive to small changes in the average number of children per mother. If the physical, financial, educational, social and religious barriers to people using family planning services were removed and the average number of children per mother was just 0.5 lower than the UN population projection which is most commonly used, global population would peak at 8.8 billion in 2050, rather than 9.8 billion.
This is all possible, by enabling the exercise of a well-recognized human right, that people should be able to decide for themselves, whether, when, how often and with whom to bring children into the world. Family planning contributes to women’s empowerment, improves family and general health, advances education and life opportunities and, by slowing population growth, eases pressures on wildlife and ecosystems.
Other organizations backing the Thriving Together campaign across the globe include Big Life Foundation Kenya, Born Free Foundation, Family Health Options Kenya, Nature Kenya, Stop Ivory, Wildlife Conservation Society, The Nature Conservancy, Zoological Society of London, and Tusk Trust among many others. Collectively, the organizations work in over 170 countries.
The Thriving Together campaign is spearheaded by the Margaret Pyke Trust, which has over 50 years’ experience of family planning and is the only member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with this expertise.
David Johnson, Chief Executive at the Margaret Pyke Trust says: “The existence of barriers to family planning is the most important ignored environmental challenge of our day. This changes now. The Thriving Together campaign encourages cross-sectoral support between health and environmental conservation organizations, showcasing that when people can choose freely whether and when to have children it is for the benefit of both people and planet. Barriers to family planning are not only relevant to those who are passionate about improving health, gender equality, empowerment and economic development, but also to those who are passionate about the conservation of biodiversity, the environment and sustainability.”
The Margaret Pyke Trust’s Thriving Together campaign is informed by its paper ‘Removing Barriers to Family Planning, Empowering Sustainable Environmental Conservation’, which sets out how and why family planning is important for the environment. The Thriving Together campaign website is www.thrivingtogether.global.
Thriving Together Endorsing organisations as at 12 September 2019:
- Africa Youth for SDGs
2. ALERT
3. Associação Moçambicana para Desenvolvimento da Família
4. Amphibian Ark
5. Association Djibouti Nature
6. Association Les Amis des Oiseaux
7. Association pour la conservation de la Nature au Rwanda
8. BIAZA
9. Big Life Foundation Kenya
10. Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health
11. Blue Ventures Conservation
12. Born Free Foundation
13. Borneo Nature Foundation
14. Botanic Gardens Conservation International
15. Bristol Zoological Society
16. Center for Biological Diversity
17. CEPARD Global
18. CHASE Africa
19. Cheetah Conservation Fund
20. Chester Zoo
21. Children’s Investment Fund Foundation
22. Climate Change Fighters Uganda
23. Community Health Africa Trust
24. Community Initiative for Social Empowerment
25. Conservation CATalyst
26. Conservation International
27. Conservation Through Public Health
28. Cote d’Ivoire SOS Forets
29. DKT International
30. Drayton Manor Zoo
31. DSW
32. Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
33. Ecological Christian Organisation
34. Eco-Time Capsule Project
35. Elephant Family
36. Eminence: Associates for Social Development
37. Endangered Wildlife Trust
38. Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society
39. Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare
40. Family Health Options Kenya
41. Family Rescue Mission
42. Feedback
43. FHI360
44. Fountain of Hope
45. FP2020
46. FPA
47. Frankfurt Zoological Society
48. Freshwater Habitats Trust
49. Friends of the Earth (England, Wales & NI)
50. Fundación para el Ecodesarrollo y la Conservación
51. Game Rangers Association of Africa
52. Game Rangers International
53. Global Ocean Trust
54. Global Wildlife Conservation
55. Greenpeace
56. Greener Growth
57. Health in Harmony
58. Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria
59. ICA Foundation
60. Institute of Natural Resources
61. International Centre for Birds of Prey
62. International Crane Foundation
63. IPAS
64. IUCN CEESP
65. IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Conservation Planning Specialist Group
66. Jane Goodall Institute
67. jhpiego
68. JSI
69. Kalahari Conservation Society
70. Lilongwe Wildlife Trust
71. Longleat
72. Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust
73. Margaret Pyke Trust
74. Marie Stopes International
75. Marwell Wildlife
76. Maternity Worldwide
77. Mount Kenya Trust
78. MUVA Elderly Initiative Uganda
79. Nature Kenya
80. Nature Uganda
81. Newquay Zoo
82. Osienala-Friends of Lake Victoria
83. PAI
84. Paignton Zoo
85. Partners in Population and Development Africa Regional Office
86. Path
87. PATH Foundation Philippines Inc.
88. Pathfinder International
89. Peace Parks Foundation
90. People’s Trust for Endangered Species
91. PHE Ethiopia Consortium
92. Plan International UK
93. Population Connection
94. Population Council
95. Population Institute
96. Population Matters
97. Population Media Centre
98. Population Reference Bureau
99. Practical Action
100. PSI
101. Rainforest Trust
102. Reproductive Health Uganda
103. Rotarian Action Group on Population & Development
104. Royal College of General Practitioners
105. Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
106. SafeHands for Mothers
107. Salamander Trust
108. Salmon & Trout Conservation
109. SHRINE
110. Society for Conservation of Nature in Liberia
111. Society for the Improvement of Rural People
112. Southern African Wildlife College
113. Stop Ivory
114. The Ecological Citizen
115. The Institute of Fisheries Management
116. The Laikipia Wildlife Forum
117. The Lakeland Trust for Natural Sciences
118. The Nature Conservancy
119. The Peregrine Fund
120. The Rivers Trust
121. The Sibthorp Trust
122. The WILD Foundation
123. The Zoological Society of London
124. Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme
125. Transition Earth
126. Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program
127. Tsavo Trust
128. Tusk Trust
129. UCL Institute for Global Health
130. Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau
131. Uganda Youth Alliance For Family Planning And Adolescents Health
132. UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health
133. UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum
134. United Nations Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)
135. UNFPA
136. Universal Health Development Foundation
137. Venture Strategies for Health and Development
138. WellBeing International
139. Wellington Zoo Trust
140. WEtalk SERIES UGANDA –WSU
141. What Works Association
142. Wild Planet Trust
143. WILD Trust
144. Wilderness Foundation UK
145. Wildlife ACT
146. Wildlife Conservation Society
147. Wildlife Reserves Singapore
148. Wildlife Trust of India
149. Wingham Wildlife Park Animal Welfare
150. World Land Trust
151. Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University
152. Youth and Women Aflame Uganda
153. Youth Association for Development-Pakistan
154. Zoologische Gesellschaft für Arten- u. Populationsschutz e.V.
155. 34 Million Friends of UNFPA