This year’s conference, hosted by the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF – https://giraffeconservation.org), promised to be a very special event as it was the first time that the conference was hosted outside South Africa.
The conference took place at Arebbusch Travel Lodge in Windhoek, Namibia from 06 – 11 October 2024, with 15 European countries in attendance as well as 9 African countries.
A BROAD CONFERENCE THEMATIC OVERVIEW
THINKING BIG: LANDSCAPE LEVEL AND TRANSBOUNDARY PERSPECTIVES ON SOUTHERN AFRICAN CONSERVATION
Wildlife management in southern Africa faces numerous challenges, including habitat fragmentation and loss, human-wildlife conflict, and climate change.
To address these issues, a landscape-level approach that considers ecological, social, and economic factors is essential.
This approach involves the integration of various management strategies, such as habitat restoration, community engagement, and adaptive management, to promote the conservation of wildlife and their habitats while also supporting local livelihoods.
During the SAWMA Namibia 2024 conference, studies from different regions in southern Africa were showcased, highlighting successful landscape-level approaches to wildlife management and conservation.
Participants were urged to discuss the challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned from these approaches and explore ways to scale up these efforts to achieve greater impact. Four sub-themes enabled presenters to share their experiences on topics such as community-based natural resource management, connectivity, green economy, and conservation health. SAWMA’s goal is to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue.
Eva Kasinda is a 4th year PhD student at the University of Namibia in the Department of Wildlife Management and Tourism Studies, exploring the Effects of fire season and occurrence on the tree density across fire treatments at Makambu Fire Experimental site, Kavango West Region, Namibia.
Her work is part of a long-term project on fire ecology and ecosystem dynamics under the guidance of Dr. Ezequiel Fabiano and co-advisors Dr. Lucas Rutina, Prof. Francisco Moreira and Prof. Jose Eugenio.
Ms. Kasinda gave a 5-minute speed presentation at the conference. There were 120 full and speed presentations, in total. From these, Ms. Kasinda emerged as the best overall presenter at the conference.
Her prize was a Bat Detector, an acoustic device to monitor bats.
