Egyptian vulture, endangered species.

The Djibouti Francolin (Francolinus ochropectus) is a Critically Endangered bird species found only in two IBAs in Djibouti. Its population is undergoing continuing decline. This means, the species faces a high risk of extinction in the immediate future. Its survival critical issues appear to be the degrading of its habitat through man-made disturbances, such as overgrazing, is a major threat to the francolin's survival. Awareness campaign consisting environmental education for elementary schools, conferences for local NGOs and government officials and eco-talk sessions for teachers and students of university will be carried out. Ongoing conservation work includes the restoration of juniper forest.

Adult female of Gundi and young - Common mammal species.

Significant progress in nature conservation issues towards increased awareness and rising interest amongst various stakeholders has been made, particularly the local community living in and around the key biodiversity sites, in the framework of our previous projects “Improving our ecological knowledge to aid conservation of the Critically Endangered Djibouti francolin” and “Increase Community Understanding on the Threats to the Critically Endangered Djibouti Francolin” both funded by Rufford respectively in 2009 and 2011. This built conservation willingness throughout community, local NGOs and other prominent stakeholders but it identified also potential conflict and threats for Djibouti Francolin and other globally threatened species. Based on that, this project is intending to consolidate, repeat and expands gained experiences to other important ecosystems and/or to nationwide.

The main expected outcomes are:

(1) Conservation attention increased nationally and more people educated and enlightened on the importance of conserving the Djibouti Francolin, key natural habitats and biodiversity.

(2) Increased training and robust alert message for the benefit of local NGOs on the importance of conserving nature.

(3) Agreement to protect part of Forêt du Day is respected, consolidated and maintained by the community

(4) Djibouti Francolin and other key species ecological profiles are improved

(5) Environmental education programme is consolidated, maintained and expanded to more schools and even the provision of didactic materiel. These small above mentioned results want to be the backbone to build a strong attention to protect Djibouti’s wildlife inheritance by following up actions arising from works supported by Rufford, including (a) an intensive awareness amongst community stakeholders (b) building capacity of the emerging support site group (c) securing from the community more stock enclosures to keep out livestock., (d) collecting additional ecological data to up date the Djibouti Francolin fact sheet 2006 and other actions such as conferences and eco-talks.