Tanzania – February 2017. New TBA training gives African conservation leaders tools to strengthen national plans for carnivore conservation.
Gregoire has a challenging job. As Benin’s National Carnivore Coordinator he is responsible for implementing his country’s strategy to conserve the dwindling numbers of cheetah and African wild dog.
It’s a tough role, largely because these large carnivores range beyond protected areas and into spaces where human populations are expanding. A key challenge is to find ways for people to co-exist alongside predators.
The challenges that Gregoire faces, and the skills that he needs to be effective, are shared by his counterparts in countries across Africa. That’s why the TBA is running a specialist training course in Tanzania, specifically designed to strengthen the capacity of national carnivore coordinators from ten countries.
Working at the boundary of research and decision-making, coordinators need a wide range of skills to be effective. The training is focussing on ground level management and community work. Bringing the coordinators together also creates a valuable opportunity to share information and approaches to conservation in different countries, and creates a new network for ongoing collaboration after the course.
The TBA was invited to run the new training programme by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). The course forms part of the Range Wide Conservation Program for Cheetah and African Wild Dogs (RWCP) across Africa.
Speaking from Tanzania, TBA Director, Rosie Trevelyan said: “Participants are learning from each other how different countries approach cheetah and wild dog conservation, and how the threats can differ.
“We are sharing a lot of interesting information that will help our participants with their national action plans for cheetah and African wild dogs. We have all agreed that we need to be creative in our approach and we need to think big – at the landscape scale.”
https://tropical-biology.org/specialist-course/conserving-cheetahs-and-wild-dogs/
Photos: Main image Cheetahs © Sarah Durant; African wild dog adult & pup © Save Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe.
