Regional framework for harmonising wildlife conservation and law enforcement across the Southern African Development Community. Signed in Maputo, Mozambique, on 18 August 1999. Objectives include: establishing common approaches to conservation and sustainable use of wildlife resources, enforcing wildlife laws within and across borders, building regional capacity for wildlife management, and facilitating community-based approaches to conservation. Provides the legal basis for Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) including the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area (covering parts of South Africa, Mozambique, and Eswatini directly overlapping with the Incomati Basin) and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. While primarily focused on terrestrial wildlife, the Protocol's provisions on community-based natural resource management, transboundary enforcement cooperation, and harmonised regulations are increasingly applied to freshwater biodiversity. Complements the SADC Revised Protocol on Shared Watercourses (2000) for integrated transboundary ecosystem management.