The third and final project workshop for eastern Africa took place from the 13 – 18th April 2010 at the Kenya Institute of Monetary Studies in Nairobi, with able logistics organization and hosting of the workshop by the Kenya Wildlife Service.
The workshop brought together a total of 35 participants from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda. All agencies from the first two workshops were represented, providing a great opportunity to share results and lessons elearnt since the first workshop twelve months previously.
The programme consisted of:
Day 1: Indicator reports and lessons learnt
All the country teams reported on their progress in biodiversity indicator development since the first workshop, obstacles encountered and lessons learnt. Indicators have been produced for populations of key mammals and birds that are important for wildlife tourism, are threatened species, are important for achieving protected area objectives, and as indicators of the status of biodiversity and the environment at the national level. Indicators are also being developed on the coverage of important habitats and ecosystems, coverage of conservation areas, harvest levels of fish stocks, human-wildlife conflict, wildlife diseases, invasive alien species, and other topics.
In the afternoon the country teams assessed their progress and lessons learnt for each stage of the Indicator Development Framework. Most of the countries had advanced to the step of calculation of some indicators, although these still had to be communicated and refined with stakeholders, along with the development of monitoring and reporting systems.
Day 2: Data into indicators, country support and making an impact
The morning session focused on the ‘Calculating Indicators’ step in the framework with a capacity building exercise on converting data into indicators. Review of the indicators calculated demonstrated that a single data set can be used to produce a variety of indicators. The key take home message from the exercise was that indicators are purpose dependant and it is essential to indentify and consider key questions and issues of importance before progressing to the stages of indicator selection and calculation.
In the afternoon participants worked together to highlight key messages from the project that they would like to be considered in discussions on post-2010 biodiversity targets and indicators at theSBSTTA-14 and COP 10 meetings of the CBD during 2010. Country teams each identified three to five messages which resulted in a set of six key messages after a group discussion.
Day 3: Common indicators, reporting and next steps
The morning session consisted of a discussion on common indicators across countries. This was followed by an opportunity for participants to work into their country teams to plan future indicator development for the year ahead. It was clear from the plans presented that all countries will continue with their indicator development, including efforts to institutionalise the production of biodiversity indicators to maintain their production.