Resource Africa works to ensure that rural communities in Southern Africa are able to exercise their rights to access and use in a sustainable manner the natural resources present in their communities that are required to enjoy adequate living conditions. To achieve this we believe that it is essential that policy making processes at international, regional and national levels are informed by and respond to the perspectives and needs of rural communities and that rural people should be equal partners in policy making and have the ability to address policy making processes directly. Our work is founded on the recognition, informed by decades of practice and scholarship, that policy is most likely to lead to sustainable environmental management when it strengthens the rights and enhances the livelihoods and well being of those immediately dependent upon it. In placing recognition of rights as an obligation at the heart of our work we recognize the interdependence between human rights and the integrity of the natural environment. We believe that effective environmental protection both promotes and depends on the exercise of human rights as an obligation and must bring to the forefront related issues such as land and resource tenure, governance, enhanced livelihoods, gender equality, equity and empowerment.  This makes direct connections between human wellbeing and the environment by clearly connecting biodiversity conservation, sustainable ecosystems management and human rights to secure livelihoods, creating and/or maintaining productive environments and ensuring all people live in dignity. Our focus is specifically on rural communities as it is these people in whose hands the future of wildlife and other natural resources primarily lie and whose livelihoods are threatened when their rights to manage their resources are not recognized. Nature and biodiversity currently account for up to 60% of GDP of the poorest in African societies and whilst globally wealth is increasing, Africa is the only region where in absolute terms people are becoming increasingly poorer. In many African countries the majority of iconic species occur outside of protected areas. For example,  60% of elephant range is outside of protected areas and typically on communal areas. This makes rural communities de facto guardians of wildlife and the fast degrading ecosystems on which we all rely. Sustainable Use of wildlife and ecosystems by communities and rural people is a basic human right recognized in both national and international law.