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Expedition Diary - Congo Basin

Education for Nature

Judith Mashinya
© WWF

Conserving the Congo: Education for Nature

For almost 15 years, WWF’s Education for Nature (EFN) Program has been equipping conservation leaders with the training and practical experience to take on challenges in their home countries. Follow Judith Mashinya of WWF’s EFN Program as she travels through the Congo Basin to visit conservationists supported by WWF. Along the way, she travels across lagoons teeming with crocodiles and learns how to avoid a buffalo attack.

Beautiful sunset in Sette Cama, Gabon
© WWF/Judith Mashinya

Part 9: Sette Cama Memories

Today was my last day at Sette Cama. The day’s program included a hike to a different part of the forest and another boat trip on the lagoon to see hippos. After the safari, I visited a women’s handicraft project in the village to meet with the women and talk about their income-generating project’s link to conservation. The women have an agreement with Ibonga, a local environmental education NGO, which sells their products at a handicrafts shop at Gamba airport and in Gamba town. Although the income from the handicrafts is not substantial, the women still welcome the earning as a supplementary source of livelihood.

Just before dinner three young men came to see me to talk about training opportunities. News had travelled in the village that WWF’s EFN Program supports training for conservationists. The men said that they had trained briefly as eco-guides under an EU-funded program. However, they said that due to the short and once-off training they still had inadequate technical and English language skills to be effective eco-guides. We talked about their needs and how EFN could be of assistance, such as the possibility of their attending the Garoua Wildlife College in Cameroon. The college trains individuals to become park guards and wardens and has also a curriculum on bushmeat. The young men were excited about the possibilities we discussed because they not only presented opportunities for honing their eco-guiding skills but also skills that would lead to career advancement in wildlife management.