Training Of Conservationists On The Use Of Drones For Ecological Monitoring Of The Habitats Of Great Apes in Africa

Abstract

In the third week of January 2023, a total of seventeen participants were hosted in Sebitoli Centre in Kibale National Park for the purpose of training on the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) commonly called Drones for use in ecological monitoring. The reason behind the project was the concerns about increased reduction of the habitats of the Great Apes due to the degradation of tropical forests which are very important both for climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation. The tropical forests form a very important ecosystem not only for local communities for whom they provide numerous ecosystem services such as food, medicine, woodfire and other resources, but also for wildlife and flora in terms of biodiversity. They are also the home of Great Apes, the chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. There is an urgent need in updated data on the number of Great Apes in and outside of the protected areas especially given that the future of humans is tightly linked to the future of Tropical forests and thus of Great Apes. Kibale National Park was selected as the main reference site for the monitoring activities as regards the work already done by Sebitoli Chimpanzee Project. The project was funded by UNESCO Natural Science Sector – Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences – Man and Biosphere Reserves (MAB) and implemented in collaboration with The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, (MNHN) and The Regional Post-Graduate Training School on Integrated Management of Tropical Forests and Lands (ERAIFT), a regional school under the auspices of UNESCO. The training with the overall goal of establishing a harmonized protocol and providing data using drones to monitor the forested habitat of the Great Apes including Chimpanzees and Gorilla of selected biosphere reserves was conducted by two trainers from France and the Team at Sebitoli Centre. The beneficiaries of the training were from Oban Biosphere Reserve, Nigeria, Queen Elizabeth Biosphere Reserve, Uganda, Bwindi National Park, Uganda, Kibale National Park, Uganda, Comoe National Park, Ivory Coast and Tai National Park/OIPR, Ivory Coast. viii REPORT ON THE TRAINING OF CONSERVATIONISTS ON THE USE OF DRONES FOR ECOLOGICAL MONITORING OF THE HABITATS OF GREAT APES IN AFRICA. Within Uganda, the training was made possible through the collaboration of Uganda Wildlife Authority, Uganda National Commission for UNESCO, Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the United National Security Services. The training was preceeded by a Risk Assessment Report conducted by the team listed. The trainees graduated as Trainers (ToTs) for their areas and thus were awarded certificates. Three Drones were allocated to the Uganda Wildlife Authority distributed one each to the three National Parks that host the great apes namely Kibale, Queen Elizabeth and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. This report is an account of the proceedings of the training exercise.