t4cd has developed a new training course on the use of technologies in wildlife conservation and sustainable development. The 5-day course was held for the first time at the Southern Africa Wildlife College (SAWC) in March and was very well received. The course aimed to equip conservation practitioners with an understanding of the role that ICTs can play in facilitating activities in their area of work, and how best to take advantage of the opportunities that technologies offer.
The students were introduced to a wide range of technology types, shown case studies of best practice and given guidance for implementation. The intention of the training was not to create ICT “technicians” but to provide the participants with a working knowledge of how ICTs can be utilised to support conservation decision-making and delivery.
The course was framed around 3 categories of ICTs – communication, wildlife tracking and remote sensing – and also addressed the crucial issue of power supply in remote locations. Each topic was covered by a manual, written by experts in the field; all these training manuals are now freely available for use by the wider conservation and development community through the t4cd site.
Feedback from the course participants at the SAWC was very encouraging, with particular appreciation for the inclusive and collaborative way in which the course was taught. It was regarded as such a success that the College now plans to include the course as a permanent unit in its diploma course in Natural Resource Management. t4cd also hopes to encourage other institutions to take advantage of the course materials, raising the profile of technologies in conservation more widely. Anyone wanting to make use of the training manuals can access them free of charge on the t4cd website.