Africa-Press – Cape verde. The island of Fogo and the Rombos islets are the stage, between today and Friday, 23, for the regional seminar on monitoring seabirds, which brings together technicians and specialists from Cape Verde, Morocco, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal.
The seminar is organized by the Associação Projeto Vitó, with the support of BirdLife International, and its main objective is to strengthen technical capacity and promote regional cooperation in the conservation of these species of marine biodiversity.
In the opening session of the regional seminar, the coordinator of the Vitó Project’s seabird monitoring program, Evandra Gomes, highlighted the importance of training.
He stated that this seminar will be essential to train technicians in monitoring seabirds, controlling threats and strengthening cooperation between West and North African countries.
The program includes presentation sessions of results obtained by Cape Verdean non-governmental organizations, which will share advances, challenges and strategies applied in conservation.
Among the national NGOs participating are Lantuna (Santiago), Biosfera (São Vicente, Santa Luzia, Ilhéus Branco and Raso), BIOCV (Boa Vista) and Projeto Biodiversidade (Sal), in addition to technicians from four African countries.
One of the highlights will be the demonstration of monitoring methodologies applied in Cape Verde, which already use advanced technologies such as GPS and geolocators to monitor the movement of seabirds, tools that are not yet widely used in the other participating countries.
For two days, participants will carry out fieldwork on Ilhéu de Cima (Tuesday and Wednesday) with the aim of directly observing monitoring techniques in practice and understanding the challenges faced in the field, according to Evandra Gomes
BirdLife International’s African regional coordinator, Tabea Zwimpeer, reinforced the strategic nature of the meeting and expressed her satisfaction at being on Fogo Island and seeing first-hand the work that Projeto Vitó has been carrying out.
This seminar, according to her, is an “excellent opportunity” to exchange experiences and knowledge, reinforce the monitoring and protection of migratory seabirds, hence the need for joint work by the countries in the region.
The president of the Associação Projeto Vitó, Paulo Pina, recalled the organization’s trajectory since its founding in 2009, and highlighted that it is “an honor” to be able to share the accumulated experience and learn from other people about the monitoring and conservation of seabirds.
“We hope that this week of work will result in strengthening regional capacity to protect marine biodiversity,” said Paulo Pina
The seminar on seabird monitoring and threat management reinforces Cape Verde’s role as a reference in seabird conservation in the region and represents another step in strengthening African environmental cooperation.
The seminar will culminate with direct support to international technicians in developing conservation plans for their own countries, with a focus on implementing effective threat monitoring and management strategies.
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