Guest Article by Tour du Valat

Dakar, Senegal, 9 - 13 December 2014 - The Technical Support Unit (TSU) to the AEWA African Initiative organized and conducted a technical workshop on improving the quantity and quality of data from waterbird counts related to the International Waterbird Census (IWC). This technical workshop took place in Dakar, Senegal from 9 to 13 December 2014 and was intended primarily for database managers from AEWA's francophone African Contracting Parties and aimed to check, update and complement existing databases on waterbird counts. A formatted and updated set of data is essential for calculating trends and estimates of population sizes and thus for the conservation of species.

This workshop was organized in response to a request by these countries in the framework of the implementation of the AEWA Plan of Action for Africa. The African Parties had identified improved quality and quantity of data (Obj 3.1) as a priority objective at a workshop organized by the TSU in Dakar in December 2013. In order to be of use for AEWA and waterbird conservation purposes, data processing, analysis and transfer to international scientific organizations are just as essential as data collection in the field.

This workshop was conducted in close cooperation with the Wadden Sea Flyway Initiative, represented by Marc van Roomen, Wetlands International Africa (Ibrahima Thiam and Gabin Agblonon) and the BirdLife/MAVA Foundation project on the Conservation of Migratory Birds, represented by Geoffroy Citegetse. The two AEWA Sub-regional Focal Point Coordinators, Mrs Ouedraogo for West Africa and Mr Bockandza-Paco for Central Africa, supported this workshop which brought together the national IWC database managers  from Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo, with the participation of the Garoua Wildlife College (Cameroon).

More information and photos are available on the TSU Facebook page.