Bio-diversity

This project is about empowering local citizens, particularly members of rural communities, to make a contribution to biodiversity monitoring and thereby influence Botswana s commitment towards meeting the obligations of the Convention on Biological Diversity. This will be achieved by building local capacity, through a series of training workshops, to enable ordinary citizens to undertake bird counts along fixed transects, the results of which will be pooled to provide a Wild Bird Index (WBI). In time, this will provide a measure of the population trends of a representative suite of wild birds to act as a barometer of the general health of the environment this project seeks only to catalyse the process, which will be self-sustaining once participants have been motivated and trained. The methodology for producing the WBI is well developed and is being undertaken by a large volunteer network of citizen scientists throughout Europe (it is described in detail elsewhere in this proposal); however, this is the first time it is being customized for use in Africa, and it is expected that other BirdLife partners in Southern Africa in particular will replicate the project so that data can be combined at a regional (and later, continental) level. Birds are good bio-indicators and a WBI will give trends that are clear, easy to interpret and quantitative. This project will be vital to monitoring and maintaining Botswana s biodiversity. This project meets the basic GEF criteria as it fits in the biodiversity focal area: the activities will promote the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources in arid and semi-arid ecosystems. In addition, the project matches the SGP principles: it encourages and supports the participation of communities, local people, NGOs, CBOs (community-based organizations), and other stakeholders in all aspects of programme planning, design and implementation.

Botswana