Capacity building

The SWM Programme works with over 80 communities to enhance their ability to manage their natural resources. We also partner with local and national institutions to help improve their wildlife management capabilities. Capacity building and training are an essential part of this process. Thousands of training days have been organized since 2018. The focus is broad and includes topics such as hunting offtake monitoring, camera trap distance sampling to measure wildlife abundance, human-wildlife conflict mitigation measures, anti-poaching and wildlife reporting. 

RESSOURCE Project Massive Open Online Course 

Entitled "Identifying and enumerating waterbirds in North Africa and the Sahel – How and for what purposes?", this new modern, open online course offers an advanced introduction to the identification of waterbirds in the region and to counting techniques. It provides an overview of the ecological, economic and social challenges faced by wetlands. It is part of the training activities carried out within the framework of the RESSOURCE Project, which has already enabled many professionals to be trained in different countries of the Sahel and aims to strengthen skills in order to develop networks of observers and experts in international waterbird counting.

It includes approximately 40 hours of learning, 35 animated sequences, ten video interviews, more than 5,000 photos and videos of birds and 210 species identification factsheets and is now available on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Programme on African Protected Areas and Conservation (PAPACO) platform. It is currently available in French (an English version will be released in the future). 

Free, Prior and Informed Consent 

The importance of Free Prior and Informed Consent for communities is complex and difficult to explain in an impactful way. To initiate discussions with communities an engaging animation with accompanying posters was produced in many local languages (e.g. Lingala, Swahili, Tonga, Betsimisaraka, Tsimihety and Lozi).

Human - Wildlife Conflict (HWC) Community trainings

The SWM Programme addresses human–wildlife conflict by supporting communities in the Kavango‑Zambezi region to balance wildlife conservation with sustainable livelihoods. This training material provides practical tools and community-led approaches to foster coexistence and strengthen both people and nature. Learn more on the HWC Toolkit dedicated page.