ARCOS Network

ARCOS organised a visit to Mukura Forest involving staff from NAFA, ARECO, Districts of Rutsiro and Ngororero and ARCOS, Photo SK/ARCOS

From outside, the Forest looks healthy, Photo SK/ARCOS

Around the Forest, the Government is doing efforts of reafforestation, Photo SK/ARCOS

Outside the Forest, Communities grow their crops as normal, Photo SK/ARCOS

But as you get closer, the signs of mining at the edge of forest send already bad signals, Photo SK/ARCOS

At the edge of the forest, ARCOS, NAFA, ARECO and District Teams are shocked by enormous devastation of the forest, Photo SK/ARCOS

And the scale of destruction is big, Photo SK/ARCOS

The scale is very, very big, Photo SK/ARCOS

The Miners settle in Forest, causing so much forest destruction, Photo SK/ARCOS

Trees are cut down, Photo SK/ARCOS

Paths inside the forest are all over, Photo SK/ARCOS

They dig very deep indeed, Photo SK/ARCOS

And far inside the forest, Photo SK/ARCOS

And more areas are destroyed, Photo SK/ARCOS

It is a disaster, Photo SK/ARCOS

Few trees remain on the way, Photo SK/ARCOS

Miners completely settle inside, Photo SK/ARCOS

Some visitors cannot believe it, Photo SK/ARCOS

Everybody cannot believe it, Photo SK/ARCOS

The Forest is gone, the forest is going, Photo SK/ARCOS

Yes, the forest is gone. Photo SK/ARCOS

The team goes back to discuss what can be done, Photo SK/ARCOS

The wounds are so enormous, Photo SK/ARCOS

This is where miners have been storing water, Photo SK/ARCOS

Outside, future generations dont realise what is happening, Photo SK/ARCOS

And poor people continue to struggle as usual, Photo SK/ARCOS

ARCOS and its partners are now working towards the solution of this problem. Photo ARCOS

For more information, please contact:

ARCOS Executive Secretary, Dr Sam Kanyamibwa: skanyamibwa@arcosnetwork.org, or

ARCOS Programme Monitoring and Development Manager, Claudien Nsabagasani, cnsabagasani@arcosnetwork.org

ARCOS is pleased to share its Strategic Plan for the Period 2011-2015 with its partners.

Click here

A four-day training organised by ARCOS was concluded on Friday 16^th of December 2011, with 26 trainees awarded certificates in Biodiversity Informatics, Data Management and GIS. The event took place in Kigali and brought together professionals from different institutions partners to ARCOS from Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania. The training was led by ARCOS Regional Information Systems Manager, Zac Maritim, with contributions from GBIF Secretariat and GBIF Nodes in Kenya, Uganda and Cameroon.    

Trainees holding their certificates, Photo CN/ARCOS

Participants to the training committed to put to the good use the skills they acquired for a more effective conservation action in the Albertine Rift through networking and use of better data collection and sharing methods, through the Albertine Rift Data Management and GIS Group set up under the GBIF Community Group.

 “This was a great opportunity to meet as professionals from different backgrounds and countries” said Aline Njebarikanuye of the National Institute for Environment and Nature Conservation (INECN/Burundi); “the skills we gained here are not only practical but also life skills because GIS is now a growing and cross-cutting tool and we hope we are going to make a difference in our institutions” added the monitoring and evaluation coordinator at INECN.

Description of the event:

The JRS foundation has awarded the Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS) a grant to build competence for biodiversity information systems in the Albertine Rift region. In the context of that project a Regional Advisory Committee for the Project is scheduled for Monday 12th December, followed by and a first 5-days training workshop, targeting to cover the following contents: Data integration, planning, design and testing. Data Acquisition and processing, network-based data and network-integrated data, acquisition and processing datasets, GIS and geo-referencing (species, long-term monitoring data, spatial data, documents, etc.).

The event will be organised in collaboration with the GBIF nodes in the region, with  GBIF representatives from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Cameroon contributing to the training.

Programme: 
Ckick here for the Advisory Committee Meeting Programme

Click here for the Training Workshop Programme

Number of participants and target audience: 
20 people. The target public are representatives from National Data Centres and ARCOS Partner institutions from Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Contact information: 
Please contact Dr Sam Kanyamibwa (skanyamibwa AT arcosnetwork.org) if you have any questions about this event.

Venue: 
Chez Lando Hotel, Kigali, Rwanda.

Dates: 
12 December: Advisory Committee;

13-17 December 2011: Training Workshop

Status: 
Scheduled

Language: 
English/French

Resources:

• ARCOS website.

Speakers/Trainers:

ARCOS is pleased to announce the arrival of Mr Zachary Kimutai Maritim as the Regional Information Systems Manager. Zac has 10 years experience in GIS/RS Data and Information Management. He has been charged with the responsibility of overseeing data collection, its processing, storage and dissemination for the purposes of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to aid in decision-making for conservation efforts. Zachary has regional experience spanning several Eastern, Central and Southern African countries including DRC, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, etc.  He has implemented large enterprise Geodatabases under ArcGIS Server and SQL Server as well as Postgre SQL and comprising ArcSDE and Web Mapping. He has conducted training and supervision of field staff in different countries on Handheld and Differential GPS and Mobile GIS (ArcPAD), RTK GPS, Total Station data collection for species monitoring, socio-economic surveys, etc. He has been a member of a Prime-Ministerial Committee on the study and recommendation of a National Spatial Data Infrastructure for the Government of Rwanda in liaison with other Regional Institutions such as the Regional Centre for Resource Surveys and Mapping based in Kenya and Butare National University of Rwanda. Zachary is perfectly bilingual and/or multilingual speaking English, French and Swahili and several African languages including Kalenjin, Luo and a little Kinyarwanda. Zac started on 1st October 2011 and will be working partly, leading the Albertine Rift Regional Information System (ARBMIS) and particularly working with different partners and stakeholders, in the development of the Albertine Rift Regonal Biodiversity Portal, a new ARCOS initiative under funding by the JRS Biodiversity Foundation.

It is often difficult to know what has been achieved until one takes time to look back. The year 2010 was such a time for ARCOS, the year ARCOS celebrated its 15 years and reviewed its activities. Read more in this ARCOS Annual Report 2010.

A Regional NGO Meeting involving over 20 NGOs members of ARCOS NGO Network met in Musanze, Rwanda, from 4-7 October 2011, for a Regional Netwworking and Leadership Development Meeting organised by ARCOS, with funding support from the MacArthur Foundation.

The meeting provided training and strategic directions to the Heads of NGOs in organization development, fundraising, business planning as well as policy and advocacy targeting emerging issues in the region such as oil and gas, ecosystem services, EIAs and climate change.

The participating NGOs conducted a review of the previous Regional NGO Strategy and suggested new priorities for the next coming years. The  NGOs identified regional initiatives for Joint NGOs advocacy work in the region and mechanisms to sustain the NGO Network

A Meeting Declaration was endorsed, click here for Musanze Declaration

ARCOS is pleased to publish its Communications Strategy, which will align all ARCOS communication activities with the Strategic Plan 2011 – 2015. We would like to encourage all partners to consult this document when referring to ARCOS activities.

Download ARCOS Communications Strategy.

ARCOS is now recruiting a Programme Manager for the Albertine Rift Regional Biodiversity Information System (ARBMIS) and GIS. This is a Senior Technical Position within the ARCOS Network. The overall responsibility of the ARBMIS and GIS Manager will be to provide leadership, coordination, management and support of all ARCOS information systems and GIS resources, working closely with ARCOS staff and partners.

Please click here for the Job Description and details.

On behalf of the whole ARCOS family and Partners, I would like to congratulate Dr. Aventino Kasangaki upon his appointment to the position of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Programme Manager, effective on 13th June 2011. Aventino joins ARCOS with exceptional experience in biodiversity conservation and research. His PhD research was on the “Effects of deforestation on stream fish assemblages of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and adjacent areas, and implications for conservation”. Prior to joining ARCOS, Aventino worked as a lecturer and Head of the Biology Department of Mbarara University of Science & Technology in Uganda and as Research Officer at the Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation.

I am sure all ARCOS partners, board and staff would  join me for a warm welcome and best wishes to Aventino.

Thanks,

Sam Kanyamibwa

ARCOS Executive Secretary