NCF Trains Park Rangers to Keep Lions Safe
Agrazing,s human-wildlife conflicts, poaching, illegal and logging persists, most endangered species in Nigeria are left at the brink of extirpation or local extinction, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) with the support of IUCN Save Our Species and the European Union hosted a Geographical Information System (GIS) training workshop for Rangers of Kainji Lake National Park (KLNP).
The training is part of the ongoing project titled “Emergency Rescue of Nigeria’s Last Populations of West African
Wildcats - Lion (Panthera leo) and Leopard (Panthera pardus) in Kainji Lake National Park. The workshop was held on Tuesday, 21st June 2022 at Federation of Borgu Youth Hall, New Bussa, Niger State.
This project is designed to address the identified challenges of habitat degradation from unsustainable land use activities, animal poisoning and hunting pressure. The goal is to improve the conservation and range protection of lion & leopard in KLNP with 50% increase in park surveillance and 70% reduction in livestock invasion into the park by December 2023.
The training’s objective is to improve rangers’ capacity for monitoring and interpreting data using GIS for effective management decisions. Furthermore, rangers will be equipped with additional tools (drone, camera traps, GPS etc) to improve park surveillance and wildlife monitoring by December 2023.
According to the Conservator of Park, CP Jimoh Oladosu while appreciating the initiative, he said “One of the benefits of the training is to improve on how to use some gadgets. We really appreciate NCF and IUCN for this initiative. It will make our rangers better and improve the park.”
The workshop facilitator, a GIS expert, Dr. Michelle Fasona, in her statement said “The job of managing our national parks by rangers is usually challenging because of the nature of their work. The training on the use of GIS for rangers is a good initiative. The use of GIS techniques is a useful time-saving tool for rangers when surveying and gathering data from the field. The information gathered from the use of GIS can help park rangers to make more informed decisions when managing the park’s resources”