ETHNOBIOLOGY AND FIELD
TAXONOMY TRAINING COURSE
The Second International
Congress on the "Utilization of Tropical Plants and the
Conservation of Biodiversity" was organized by the Bioresources
Development and Conservation Programme (BDCP) on October
12 - 28, 1995 in Douala, Cameroon. The Congress provided
a forum for an interdisciplinary discussion of the strategies
for sustainable utilization of tropical plants as economic
resources and the development of practical conservation
systems that benefit local communities inhabiting tropical
forests around the world. The Congress consisted of two
workshops and a four-day conference. It was attended by
90 people from several African countries, U.S.A. and Europe.
The first workshop, a practical training course on "Ethnobiology
and Field Taxonomy," took place on October 12-23. There
were 19 participants from Cameroon, Guinea, South Africa
and U.S.A.
Prior to this training programme, the invited speakers
and core course staff for the training program met in
Limbe (Cameroon) to discuss the curriculum and to determine
the number and entry qualification of the participants.
The lecturers were briefed about the objectives, methodology
and orientation of the training program. Course content
used at the earlier course held in Nigeria was reviewed
and modified as appropriate to satisfy the local conditions.
Discussions were also held on the use of visual aids,
improving delivery skills and motivating the course participants
to be more interactive in the course. Since most of the
lecturers were experienced experts and professionals in
their various disciplines emphasis was placed on detailed
briefing on the program objectives, participants' background
and the role of each individual lecturer in the overall
subject. Some of the lecturers who were absent at the
pre-course briefing were contacted individually by Prof.
Maurice Iwu before the training started.
Most of the course participants were employees of Government
departments, NGO's and bilateral aid projects. The emphasis
was on the selection of herbarium sample preparation,
and ethnographic data collection were taught by a high
caliber of teaching staff consisting of ten local and
three foreign lecturers. All areas of ethnobotanical and
conservation work were covered in the training in order
that this knowledge may be recorded and disseminated to
contribute to forest management and conservation programs.
The course participants were given some useful course
material. They also participated in the International
Conference on "Utilization of Tropical Plants and Conservation
of Biodiversity" which incorporated a workshop on "Commercialization
of Renewable Biological Resources." During this workshop,
various issues related to bioprospecting, intellectual
property rights and benefit sharing were discussed. Practical
hints on patenting of natural products, protection of
indigenous knowledge and compensation of local communities
were also considered.
After the ten days of tutorial and field training, the
participants conducted eight weeks of supervised project
and they are expected to submit a project report which
will reflect aspects of the topics covered in the course.
This training course has produced the much needed trained
personnel for the planned ethnobiological field work and
accurate identification of plants in Cameroon.
The course was a huge
success due largely to the committment of the organizing
committee headed by Dr. Terry Sunderland and the expertise
of the lecturers involved.
Your comments and questions
are welcome. Write to the Editor, Biological Resources.
For further information, contact:
BDCP Newsletter Bureau
Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme
11303 Amherst Avenue, Suite 2
Silver Spring, Maryland 20902
U.S.A.
Phone: 301-962-6201
Fax: 301-962-6205
Email: bdcp@bioresources.org
Administrative
Offices
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