Bonn, 10 November 2015 - An important element contributing to the implementation of AEWA’s Africa Initiative is the Memorandum of Understanding signed by three leading sub-regional wildlife management schools in Africa — the Garoua Wildlife College (Cameroon), the College of Wildlife Management in Mweka (United Republic of Tanzania) and the Kenya Wildlife Service Training Institute in Naivasha. Under this MOU, the schools have all agreed to include in their curricula the training kit on the flyway approach to waterbird and wetland conservation, which was developed in the framework of the UNEP/GEF African-Eurasian Wings Over Wetlands (WOW) Flyways Project, as well as the training toolkit on waterbird identification and counting in Africa, developed by “Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage” (ONCFS). People who undergo this training are expected to pass on what they have learned to others, building the knowledge base on the ground in the region where it will be used.

The MOU was formally signed by AEWA's Executive Secretary, Jacques Trouvilliez, during the 6^th Session of the Meeting of the Parties to AEWA (MOP6) in November 2015 in the presence of Dr Serge Kadiri Bobo of the Garoua Wildlife College, Ms Roselyn Agumba Onyuro of the Kenya Wildlife Service Training Institute and Professor Alexander Songorwa, Director of the Sokoine University of Agriculture, United Republic of Tanzania. At an AEWA MOP6 side event, the three representatives of these institutions presented their ideas on integrating training modules on waterbird and wetlands conservation into their curricula.