Regional Waterbird Conservation Capacity Strengthened in Africa

Article submitted by Tour du Valat

Bonn, 7 October 2015 - From 7 to 11 September 2015, the Technical Support Unit (TSU) to the African Initiative of AEWA has initiated and led a brainstorming workshop in Mweka (Tanzania), with the heads of three major institutions of higher education specializing in the management and conservation of African wildlife. The group included directors of the College of African Wildlife Management in Mweka (Tanzania), the Kenya Wildlife Service Training Institute in Naivasha (Kenya) and the School for the Training of Wildlife Specialists of Garoua (Cameroon).

The challenge of this week was to demonstrate the benefits of educational kits developed by the French National Office for Hunting and Wildlife (ONCFS) and for the Wings over Wetlands project (WOW), and to start training the educators participating in this workshop in order to integrate the kits in the programs of these three schools. This action corresponds to several objectives of the Action Plan for Africa of AEWA.

The two educational kits can be easily combined to conduct 2-3 week courses complimented by practical work in the classroom and in the field. Participants will better understand and control issues and apply tools related to monitoring, conservation and management of migratory waterbirds along their migration route between Europe and Africa. The teaching staff of the three schools, consisting of African wildlife experts lecturing at African universities, have recognized and appreciated the quality and flexibility of these educational kits and confirmed their intent to integrate the material into their curriculum.

In addition, the directors of the three schools have expressed the wish to formalize the partnership, initially based on migratory waterbirds and to eventually extend it to the conservation of African biodiversity as a whole. They also stressed their urgent needs for educational material such as binoculars, telescopes and field guides. This new partnership on monitoring and conservation of migratory waterbirds is especially important because it represents progress towards an Africa-based education, and therefore raising the awareness of this issue on the continent.

Last updated on 19 October 2015