Critical baseline information on Garamba's threatened Kordofan giraffe was collected over the last year, enabling a better understanding of their status and leading to the development of a draft Garamba Giraffe Conservation Strategy and Action Plan to guide actions over the next five years. It is important that these actions are being realised. Amongst others these actions include long-term giraffe field monitoring, training of a national master/PhD student and the development of a working group to review the developments on a six-monthly basis. With the support of the Rufford Foundation these actions can be realised and help the population increase.
As an MSc student and with the support of a Rufford grant and partners I was given the opportunity to undertake conservation research on Garamba's critically threatened Kordofan giraffe in 2016 - 2017. Through this work critical questions concerning the population were answered, and involved establishing an individual identification baseline of the giraffe, a better understanding of their population dynamics and their use of the Garamba habitat. Furthermore, I drafted a Park Giraffe Conservation Strategy and Action Plan to guide future conservation measures in the Park to protect the species. It is important that the actions outlined in the Strategy and Action Plan are followed up.
This project, supported by a second Rufford Small Grant, seeks to support the dedicated monitoring programme of the highly threatened Kordofan giraffe in Garamba National Park and to provide a detailed set of conservation management measures to protect them and their future in/outside the Park based on the developed Giraffe Conservation Strategy and Action Plan. Within the framework of African Parks Network and DRC Government's ICCN field efforts, the project aims to support the implementation of the Strategy and Action Plan, which was developed through previous work on giraffe conservation in Garamba National Park supported by a Rufford grant.
Amongst others critical actions to be undertaken in the Park, key giraffe conservation efforts highlighted include the long-term monitoring of giraffe through dedicated field surveys and aerial flights and the training of local DRC nationals to ensure long-term following up of the project. All of this is critical in an effort to be pro-active in giraffe conservation management in the Park, and hopefully help conserve them before it is too late.