Building African Capacity for Conserving Biodiversity in a Changing Climate

START’s advanced Education and Training initiative in the Albertine Rift region of Africa aims to build individual and institutional capacity to address new and additional risks from climate change to ecosystems and biodiversity. The Albertine Rift biodiversity hotspot is an important source of many vital ecoservices for local communities and is increasingly under threat from a changing climate and other local drivers such as human induced landscape changes. Targeted capacity building programs, such as this START-led one, are increasingly important for developing regionally based expertise that can assess relevant risks and develop context specific adaptive responses to improve ecosystem resilience.

Under this program, Phase 1 of which was implemented in 2007-2008, conservation practitioners, graduate students, and university teaching faculty from the Albertine Rift countries of DR Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania participate in advanced courses at the University of Dar es Salaam and execute field based externship projects. A key accomplishment of Phase 1 is that a majority of the participants have been able to effectively apply the learning to their professional activities either through continued engagement in related research; as advisors to government, NGO and community initiatives; or as university educators. Moreover, the program has linked participating individuals and their home institutions in a regional network that can collaborate and communicate across borders on addressing climate change and biodiversity challenges.

Phase 2, currently underway, seeks to build on this momentum and incorporates enhancements that draw upon key experiences and lessons learned from the first initiative. The Education and Training component from this phase commenced at the University of Dar es Salaam on July 19, 2010. Twenty (20) practitioners and graduate students as well as 10 university teaching faculty, from Albertine Rift countries, are engaged in learning about climate change risks to biodiversity and approaches to managing such risks. Classroom training will conclude September 3, 2010 followed by  field-based externship research projects for the practitioner/graduate student pool. Participating university teaching faculty will receive training in the use and application of distance learning modules. Online distance learning modules, a new addition under Phase 2, are intended to broaden the program’s reach to a greater number of individuals and institutions. A regional science-policy dialogue to inform and engage decision makers is also planned in early 2011.

The Albertine Rift capacity building effort is made possible by generous support from the MacArthur Foundation and is jointly implemented by the START and the Institute of Resource Assessment (IRA), University of Dar es Salaam.

For more information, contact Jyoti Kulkarni, jkulkarni@start.org

Last Updated on August 9th, 2010