Episode 62 - FOCAC Assessment: Sustainability and wildlife

Cowries and Rice

The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) just ended on December 4-5 in Johannesburg, South Africa. For historical context, FOCAC was initiated in 2000 in Beijing in order to sketch out a three-year cooperation plan between China and the countries of Africa. Since then, the triennial meetings have alternated between China and an African country. Hosts Winslow Roberson and Lina Benabdallah (Yiting Wang was unable to join) wanted to assess FOCAC's sustainability and environmental initiatives and brought back on the pod Ms. Li Nan and Ms. Louise Scholtz from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) China and WWF South Africa respectively, as well as a new guest from TRAFFIC China. Ms. Li Nan is policy manager of China's Green Shift Initiative at WWF China; Mr. Zhou Fei: head of TRAFFIC China, the wildlife trade research network; and Ms. Louise Scholtz is manager for the policy futures unit at WWF South Africa.