Management planning for nature conservation : a theoretical basis & practical guide was written by Mike Alexander, a member of the team responsible for developing management planning guidelines for the Ramsar Convention. The book, written for students and practitioners, offers guidance in planning for protected areas, including planning for recreational access and stakeholder involvement. An...
INTUTE has alerted us to a wildlife radio tracking reference database hosted by the company BlueSky Telemetry, which produces wildlife telemetry GPS collars and accessories to track wild animals or semi domesticated farm animals for research purposes. Registration is required for full text access to the papers in the database but unregistered users can search the database for titles and...
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in early 2004 produced a Programme of Work on Protected Areas, in which Parties to the convention are called to assess at least 30 per cent of their parks and their networks of protected areas, by 2010. To assist parties in this, the Worldwide Fund for Wildlife (WWF) has created two management effectiveness tools: the tracking tool and WWF’s RAPPAM...
The World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), a collaboration between the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and WCMC 2000, a UK-based charity, has a mandate from the UNEP Governing Council to provide a range of biodiversity-related services to UNEP, the biodiversity-related conventions and their constituent party-states and other bodies in the non-governmental and private...
The Photo-Point Monitoring Handbook, parts A and B, published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, describes methods for documenting change in vegetation and soil through repeat photography. Part A discusses field techniques such as the use of maps to find sampling locations, documentation of equipment and weather conditions, and how to achieve precision in repeat photography....
ELDIS has alerted us to Community-Based Ecological Monitoring: a Manual for Practitioners, published by the Southern Alliance for Indigenous Resources (SAFIRE). The manual focuses on a participatory community-based approach, where monitoring activities are carried out by the resource users themselves. Its two parts provide an overview of ecological monitoring and step-by-step instructions for...
BIOTA transects in Africa
Professor Norbert Juergens of the BIOTA Africa (BIOdiversity Monitoring Transect Analysis in Africa ) project is visiting HOORC this week to discuss possible collaboration in observation of biodiversity change. The project, with bases in Morocco, West Africa, Congo, East Africa and Southern Africa (Namibia and South Africa), aims to provide scientific support for...
Sampling aquatic invertebrates
The Botswana Department of Animal Health and Production has released Recovery monitoring after 2006 aerial spraying of deltamethrin for tsetse fly eradication in the Kwando-Linyanti and Caprivi region, edited by HOORC researchers Casper Bonyongo and Dominic Mazvimavi. The conclusion drawn from the 2006 spraying indicated that, in addition to affecting the...
Zebra at Boteti water point, August 2007
HOORC researcher Casper Bonyongo joined Chris Brooks, and Stephen Harris of the University of Bristol, in studying how the weight of radio collars affects behaviour of, and location error for, plains zebra in the Magkadigkadi and Nxai Pans in northern Botswana. The results of their study, which found that small differences in collar weight or fit can...
Intute alerted us to the web site of Dr. Anthony R. Curtis, Space Today Online, which has several pages devoted to explaining how endangered wildlife is tracked using satellites. The site includes links to relevant sections of sites like NASA, NOAA and manufacturers of radio collars, and includes an index to some of the types of animals currently being monitoried in this...
The Weatherman site includes current weather reports from three Okavango Delta tourist lodges:
Linyanti-Wilderness Safaris Linyanti History
Mombo-Wilderness Safaris Mombo History
Vumbura-Wilderness Safaris Vumbura History
The Maun-based Jacana Enterprises' Weather Page reports Maun weather regularly and provides links to other southern African weather...
Photo courtesy of Vincent Shacks
Vincent Shacks of ESA, Maun, brought a copy of his University of Stellenbosch thesis, Habitat vulnerability of the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, to the HOORC library yesterday. Mr Shacks and associates are beginning a crocodile monitoring programme, extending former work in the Okavango Panhandle to the semi-permanent...
A workshop, Environmental Change in the Kalahari Region, will be held in Maun, Botswana on the 3rd – 6th March, 2008. There are four major themes for the workshop:
1) Monitoring for environmental change
2) Palaeo-environmental change in Africa
3) Environmental change and human well being
4) Transboundary range resource issues.
An objective of the workshop is to form a...
Open Billed Stork, courtesy of Hannelore Bendsen
The latest report in HOORC's work on tsetse fly control, Environmental monitoring of May-August 2006 aerial spraying of deltamethrin for tsetse fly eradication in the Kwando-Linyanti and Caprivi region, prepared by HOORC researchers Casper Bonyongo and Dominic Mazvimavi for Botswana's Department of Animal Health and Production has been...
ELTOSA meeting participants at Satara exclosure, photo courtesy of Joh Henschel
The annual ELTOSA (Ecological Long Term observation network of southern Africa meeting took place in South Africa this year in Paborwa, a mining town on the edge of Kruger National Park with invitees from Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa. Following updates from the various representative...
Helen Dallas and Belda Mosepele checking invertebrate samples in the Okavango Delta
HOORC's library has visitors from the University of Cape Town's Freshwater Research Unit this week --- Dr Helen Dallas and Dr Jenny Day -- who have been discussing aspects of aquatic biomonitoring in the Okavango Delta. In HOORC's library you can find A preliminary survey and analysis of the spatial distribution...
HOORC's Library had a visit today from representatives of the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) and the Botswana Department of Meteorological Services (DMS) who are working together in a capacity building project to train DMS personnel to provide a range of modern weather and climate services. Jointly sponsored by SIDA and the Botswana government, the project is ending the...
Photo: courtesy Conservation International / Aquarap participant
The Okavango Freshwater Biodiversity Expert meeting will take place at HOORC in Maun from 24 to 27 October. The meeting will focus on data availability for species with potential value in monitoring the Delta’s water quality over a long-term horizon. Participants will be reviewing the available species data in a few key taxonomic...
A short course on multivariate statistics for biological and environmental data has just been held at HOORC through HOORC's project, Monitoring and simulating threats to aquatic biodiversity in the Okavango Delta, led by the Darwin Initiative project's principal investigator Dr Anson Mackay. Participants from Botswana's departments of Water Affairs, Wildlife and Fisheries as well as from HOORC,...
Bird Conservation Newsletter Photo of the Month: Martial Eagle with Steenbok prey by Victor Horatius
The September 2007 issues of both Familiar Chat and the Bird Conservation Newsletter arrived in HOORC's library this week, alerting us to the avi-tourism work of the Bosele Lake Ngami Conservation Trust, the Trans-Okavango Transect expedition in that took place in September, a useful new...
Feedback to community leaders on the progress of the Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP) will be forthcoming from the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) at two upcoming workshops. The events will be held in Shakawe at the Shakawe Sub Land Board Conference Room on 13 August 2007, and again in Maun on 20 August 2007 at Maun Senior Secondary School (Motsamai Mpho Hall), both kicking off...
HOORC is now implementing a case study on the Okavango delta for the EU-funded project, "Integration of freshwater biodiversity in the development process throughout Africa: mobilising information and site demonstrations." This IUCN Species Survival Commission project will enable water resource managers and environmental planners throughout Africa to integrate information on freshwater...
The International Trade Forum web site has a story about Louis Liebenberg's digital wildlife tracking work in the Kalahari, where indigenous peoples are being trained to use hand held electronic devices to capture data about wildlife populations and movements. You can learn more about technology developments in natural resource monitoring on the Technologies for Conservation and Development...
Handbook of biodiversity methods : survey, evaluation and monitoring, published by Cambridge University Press, provides best practice methods for surveying a broad range of habitats and species. Written for those needing to undertake biodiversity audits, the book offers information about both survey methods and current methods for evaluating ecological data. A most useful appendix classifies...
The Okavango Delta Management Plan's Research and Monitoring Action Plan, released at the beginning of April 2007, is the next step in putting the ODMP's research strategy into practice. Based on consultations with stakeholders between January and March 2007, the action plan provides more specific detail about research and monitoring strengths and gaps in the three priority areas of ecology,...
HOORC researchers presented the draft report of the 2006 environmental monitoring of aerial spraying of deltamethrin for tsetse fly control in the Kwando Linyanti region at a meeting at Maun Lodge on March 29th. The report was accepted and will be available in HOORC's library at the end of April 2007. Recovery monitoring work will begin in May. For further information contact Dr Casper Bonyongo...
Practical Tools for Community Conservation in Southern Africa, number 55 in the International International Institute for Environment and Development's Participatory Planning and Action series, is a compilation of experience in developing community based tourism, environmental monitoring and wildlife management. Guest editors Brian Child and Brian Jones have included useful descriptions of...
Technologies for Conservation & Development (t4cd), a joint project of the international conservation organisation Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and the South Africa based development NGO ResourceAfrica (RA), aims to raise awareness of the benefits of technology in the fields of conservation and sustainable development. The project's web site brings into one place news about information and...
The World Resources Institute's Earthtrends database has been updated to include revised information on the status of multilateral environmental agreements and more recent data for world education and literacy, public health, and CO2 emissions indicators. Under Environmental Governance and Institutions you can find the latest multilateral agreement status of the Convention on Biodiversity...