In an effort to increase awareness about the project, build capacity, and thereby increase our citizen science community, the Nigerian Bird Atlas Project (NiBAP, a member of the African Bird Atlas Project) held a two-day seminar with officers and men of the Nigerian National Park Service (NNPS) including the Conservator-General, Alhaji Ibrahim Goni in attendance. The NNPS is a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Environment of Nigeria responsible for the protection and conservation of wildlife in the seven National Parks in the country.
The event was facilitated by the Project Manager of NiBAP, in the person of Dr. Talatu Tende accompanied by Ms. Kazeh Nanchin Winifred and Mr. Arin Izang. Stakeholders were presented with checklist of birds obtained from the ABAP database for each of the national parks and they were briefed on how they can include bird data in their conservation efforts and for continued update of the ABAP database and monitoring of the National Parks.
The event took place at the Park headquarters in Abuja with participants drawn from all the seven Nigerian National Parks. Participants also had two field birding outings to get acquainted with the use of the bird atlas mobile App (BirdLasser) for capturing bird records practically. Finally, participants were urged to join the bird clubs around them to further hone their bird identification skills.
This event is a part of the The African Bird Atlas Project taking place under the BID programme