Summer Snapshots: UW faculty, students aid African conservation efforts

July 24th 2012 Simon Kuran
Natural & Physical Sciences
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French and African languages and literature Professor Aliko Songolo (right) has been working on the Division of International Studies project for nearly three years. Botany and Environmental Studies Professor Don Waller joined the effort in late 2011.

Most of the students in the College of Letters & Science may be away for the summer, but that doesn’t mean the action has stopped on campus. Our faculty and staff are still living out the Wisconsin Idea, both in Madison and all over the world. This is a story in our Summer Snapshots series.

Faculty and students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison will lend their expertise to conservation efforts in central Africa as the first university member of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership.

The 10-year-old partnership brings together more than 40 countries, United Nations offices, non-governmental organizations and private groups to manage the forest resources and improve living conditions in the 1.5 million square miles drained by the Congo River, the world’s ninth-longest river.

The UW-Madison Division of International Studies has already supported several trips to the Congo River region.

A pair of professors —Aliko Songolo, professor of French and African languages and literature, and Don Waller, professor of Botany and Environmental Studies— are visiting northern Cameroon’s Ecole de Fauna Garouna this summer. While there, they're developing proposals to engage central African countries and institutions on training and research programs related to sustainable forest and wildlife management.

"The membership in CBFP is the tip of the iceberg," said Songolo, who has been working on the Division of International Studies project for nearly three years.

In addition, the Professional French Masters program has sent a student intern to work with the African Model Forest Network in wildlife monitoring and habitat preservation.

As UW–Madison’s links to institutions in the Congo Basin grow, the group hopes to add opportunities for student and faculty exchange and research collaborations in the areas of wildlife and habitat monitoring, community conservation and socio-economic aspects of sustainable development — all key for conserving wildlife and alleviating poverty in central Africa.

Story by Chris Barncard, University Communications