APLORI Nigeria AP Leventis Lecture
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Transcript of APLORI Nigeria AP Leventis Lecture
Fourth Annual AP Leventis Lecturehosted by the AP Leventis Ornithological
Research Institute, University of Jos, Nigeria 11 November 2014
Les Underhill
Animal Demography Unit
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Cape Town
http://adu.org.za
AP Leventis Ornithological Research Institute (APLORI)
• APLORI was founded on 18 June 2001
• It is linked to the University of Jos
• It is located within the Amurum Forest Reserve at Laminga, on the outskirts of Jos, capital of Plateau State, in central Nigeria
• Since 2003, classes of eight students have done an MSc course in Conservation Biology
• Many of these students are leaders in conservation in West Africa. Many have continued to do PhDs
Earlier in November at a ceremony in London, DrShiiwua Manu, Director of APLORI, accepted the Marsh Award for International Ornithology for his excep-tional work in advancing the knowledge of birds in Nigeria.
Traffic lights in Abuja. Top: 23 seconds of red remain before it turns green! Right: Green for another 26 seconds
AP Leventis Ornithological Research Centre, about 15 km from Jos, and some five hours’
drive from Abuja
About 200 bird species have been seen from the veranda of the guest house at APLORI, used by
visiting lecturers and researchers
Setting out to do the Fourth AP Leventis Lecture at the University of Jos. With Dr Shiiwua Manu,
Director of APLORI
Biodiversity conservation: how to make a
difference
Les Underhill
Animal Demography Unit
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Cape Town
Dreams of Africa
• There are many African dreams … health, peace, water, electricity, prosperity
• This is the African dream for biodiversity
So what is the dream?
•To generate the baseline distribution maps for biodiversity
•To get all of you to help!
What’s the problem?
• In the face of climate change and development, the quality of life for Africans depends on the maintenance of ecosystem services
• Africa is, of all continents, the most vulnerable to climate change
• The pace of development is scary
Achieving the dream depends on …
• Biodiversity informatics
• Citizen science
• Animal Demography Unit seems to be the leader in Africa in these two fields
Infl
uenc
e
Dat
a
Info
rmat
ion
Nar
rati
ve Policy
The ADU’s role is to collect data with our citizen scientists, process it into information, and originate the narrative. Our engagement partners shift narrative to policy
How the Animal Demography Unit works
ADU core values• Conservation: Informing, influencing and motivating biodiversity policy
development based on sound quantitative and scientific evidence through
our commitment to long-term monitoring and analysis
• Partnership: Nurturing partnerships with people, organizations and
governments on the African continent to benefit biodiversity conservation
and mutual growth
• Empowering: Enabling people to play a meaningful and living role in the
science conversation by transforming Citizen Scientists into “ambassadors
for biodiversity”
• Openness: Adopting an “Open Access” data sharing paradigm that
maximizes the benefit derived from data collectively gathered, and thus
advancing interdisciplinary scholarly research and informing conservation
needs
• Innovation: Continuing the pioneering work that has made us leaders in
Citizen Science
• Education: Providing training and research opportunities to the next
generation of scientists, leaders and environmentalists
Why are you a citizen scientist?
• Are you collecting data for us?
• No, you are collecting data for yourself!
• It is your survival which hinges on us getting this right