Title: "Biodiversity,conservation and environmental education in African Tropical Forests"

Project number: B7-5041/93.29/VIII/FOR

Amount: 583.054 ECU

Contractor: Earthwatch Europe (Oxford-UK)

Field: biodiversity/environmental information

Country: Kenya (Kakamega Forest) and Cameroon (Mount Cameroon)

Date of signature: 21/02/94

Duration: 41 months

This project is designed to multiply and thereby enhance environmental information regarding two tropical forest sites in Africa (Kakamega forest in Kenya and Mount Cameroon in Cameroon) through a biodiversity study and a field training programme.

Objectives:

• To ensure improved management and sustainable development of the specific forest sites by a greater understanding of the biodiversity;
• Significantly to increase awareness, education and training amongst indigenous people and key opinion formers and decision makers in Africa by on-site field training projects;
• To determine the role of data sets and inventories in influencing forest management and conservation;
• To develop a model for the use of information from diverse sites in informing the policy and practice of sustainable development

Activities:

• April 1994-November 1996: on-going recruitment of volunteers for Earthwatch research team (mapping and recording the biodiversity at each site);
• April 1994-January 1997: on going assessment and evaluation by Biodiversity Working Group (provide and evaluate data necessary for developing strategies for forest management which centre on the sustainable conservation of the forests which are community based);
• April 1994-January 1997: on-going preparation for field work and analysis of local results by individual project leaders
• March 1997: end of project tropical forest seminar in UK.

Results expected:

• Three year biodiversity studies to be carried out at two sites to enhance environmental information;
• Active involvement of approximately two hundred volunteer workers over three years, of whom at least 75 will be opinion formers and decision makers from Africa;
• Institutional capacity building in Africa resulting from training of individuals and subsequent follow-up such as science up-dates;
• Education of indigenous populations through local schools and organisations;
• Use of a model of eco-tourism to demonstrate to local populations the economic benefits of sustainable tourism;
• Evaluation and consolidation of results through a working group and an end of project seminar;
• Recommendations to policy makers and research institutes throughout the EC and Africa on the use of data and inventories in African tropical forests.

Beneficiaries: indigenous peoples, Institutions, policy makers and research institutes.

Implementation strategy:

The results will be fed to the UK Tropical Forest Forum, and will be evaluated and assessed by the Forum's biodiversity Working Group meeting at regular intervals. This will lead to an end of programme seminar which will focus on the uses of data and inventories in policy, conservation and management of African tropical forests.

Involvement of indigenous peoples at all stages of the field work.

Field resources: research teams will consist of a high quality volunteers work force led by a principal investigator.

Organisation and fulfilment of the project by Earthwatch Europe.

UK Tropical Forest Forum: the Biodiversity working group will meet three times a year to discuss the programme.

Report on second year's activities.

Measured against the objectives of the project, show that the programme is on target to achieve all its objectives within the budget and on schedule.

Calendar for final year's activities commence April 1996 and will be finished on July 1997 after approval of the final report by the European Commission. The final report had to be presented in May 1997.

Fellowship programme: the focus of the second year's fellowships has been on professional botanists and young scientists. The principal investigators recommended that, in certain cases, the fellow was not scientifically qualified for the project and that Earthwatch Europe should screen applicants more carefully. Personal recommendations from local partners is an effective method for screening.

The field work - Cameroon: (Botanical inventory of the forests of south west Cameroon) this sort of project could be readily reproduced elsewhere.

• The volunteers and fellows participate fully in all phases of field work from collection through preparation to identification; the selection of fellows is highly targeted towards practising botanists and conservationists. These have been able to add greatly to the identification work and develop on aspects of the plot sampling techniques;
• Nomination of fellowship candidates by the principal investigator is highly desirable. This ensures that additional expertise is provided for the project and reinforce institutional linkages;
• Involvement by the local community is integral to the project and should be supported;
• Conservation measures, as represented by local protection for selected plants population, are an important initiative and should be instituted at other sites.
• Preliminary analysis of the specimen data incorporated in the BRAHMS (Botanical Research and herbarium management System) and FROGGIE (Forest Reserves of Ghana: Geographical Information Exhibitor) systems should be circulated to support the patterns of conservation priorities emerging from botanical inventory.

The field work - Kenya: (Survey of the syrphid fauna of Kakamega forest)

• Continued cooperation with centre for Biodiversity should be encouraged;
• Greater attention should be paid to the ecological aspects of a study early in the project development;
• Maximise potential for establishing contacts, both within the host institution and with other agencies and prime candidates for such linkages (African Wildlife Foundation,Tropical Biology Association, Kenya wildlife services, IUCN's East African regional office);
• To provide a useful comparison with the Kakamega site, further collections should be made at Kibale forest, Uganda. This would further identify indicator species from the relic Guinea-Congo forests.