Fourth Annual AP Leventis Lecturehosted by the AP Leventis Ornithological

Research Institute, University of Jos, Nigeria 11 November 2014

Les Underhill

Animal Demography Unit

Department of Biological Sciences

University of Cape Town

http://adu.org.za

AP Leventis Ornithological Research Institute (APLORI)

• APLORI was founded on 18 June 2001

• It is linked to the University of Jos

• It is located within the Amurum Forest Reserve at Laminga, on the outskirts of Jos, capital of Plateau State, in central Nigeria

• Since 2003, classes of eight students have done an MSc course in Conservation Biology

• Many of these students are leaders in conservation in West Africa. Many have continued to do PhDs

Earlier in November at a ceremony in London, DrShiiwua Manu, Director of APLORI, accepted the Marsh Award for International Ornithology for his excep-tional work in advancing the knowledge of birds in Nigeria.

View from fifth floor of Barcelona Hotel in Abuja, capital city of Nigeria

Traffic lights in Abuja. Top: 23 seconds of red remain before it turns green! Right: Green for another 26 seconds

AP Leventis Ornithological Research Centre, about 15 km from Jos, and some five hours’

drive from Abuja

About 200 bird species have been seen from the veranda of the guest house at APLORI, used by

visiting lecturers and researchers

Setting out to do the Fourth AP Leventis Lecture at the University of Jos. With Dr Shiiwua Manu,

Director of APLORI

Academic procession

Introducing the Fourth AP Leventis Lecturer

Biodiversity conservation: how to make a

difference

Les Underhill

Animal Demography Unit

Department of Biological Sciences

University of Cape Town

Dreams of Africa

• There are many African dreams … health, peace, water, electricity, prosperity

• This is the African dream for biodiversity

So what is the dream?

•To generate the baseline distribution maps for biodiversity

•To get all of you to help!

What’s the problem?

• In the face of climate change and development, the quality of life for Africans depends on the maintenance of ecosystem services

• Africa is, of all continents, the most vulnerable to climate change

• The pace of development is scary

Achieving the dream depends on …

• Biodiversity informatics

• Citizen science

• Animal Demography Unit seems to be the leader in Africa in these two fields

What has the ADU achieved?

4882 pages

Infl

uenc

e

Dat

a

Info

rmat

ion

Nar

rati

ve Policy

The ADU’s role is to collect data with our citizen scientists, process it into information, and originate the narrative. Our engagement partners shift narrative to policy

How the Animal Demography Unit works

ADU core values• Conservation: Informing, influencing and motivating biodiversity policy

development based on sound quantitative and scientific evidence through

our commitment to long-term monitoring and analysis

• Partnership: Nurturing partnerships with people, organizations and

governments on the African continent to benefit biodiversity conservation

and mutual growth

• Empowering: Enabling people to play a meaningful and living role in the

science conversation by transforming Citizen Scientists into “ambassadors

for biodiversity”

• Openness: Adopting an “Open Access” data sharing paradigm that

maximizes the benefit derived from data collectively gathered, and thus

advancing interdisciplinary scholarly research and informing conservation

needs

• Innovation: Continuing the pioneering work that has made us leaders in

Citizen Science

• Education: Providing training and research opportunities to the next

generation of scientists, leaders and environmentalists

Why are you a citizen scientist?

• Are you collecting data for us?

• No, you are collecting data for yourself!

• It is your survival which hinges on us getting this right

Take home message: “Make a difference …… contribute your piece to the puzzle”

Amurum Forest

APLORI: Main buildings close up; guest cottage at the foot of the hill

I greatly valued the opportunity to present the Fourth AP Leventis Lecture. The visit to the

University of Jos was fully sponsored by APLORI