Conservation Workshop – Introduction to the Namibian snakes for Conservancies and Game guards

TOSCO Trust is partnering with SNAKES OF NAMIBIA to propose an Awareness Conservation workshop for communities and especially for game guards.

The Conservation Workshop grants support training with a strong hands-on learning component that will help your communities understand the snakes better.

Objective: 

1. Create awareness within the 86 conservancies in Namibia regarding snakes. 
2. Collecting data from communities regarding the snake / human wildlife conflicts.
3. Set up a first aid protocol (action plan) for snakebites in communities. 

Snakes of Namibia have developed a variety of snake handling and awareness courses of the last couple of years, because snakes often come into conflict with humans it is important that we equip the public with knowledge on identification, first aid and handling of dangerous snakes. Specially in Conservancies around Namibia, which there are not data collected.

Conservation Workshop for Erongo Region

We planned the first workshop/training for game guards on Saturday 31 August 2019 for 6 conservancies: Tsiseb, Otjimboyo, Sorris Sorris, Khoadi-//Hôas Conservancy, Doro !Nawas Conservancy andUibasen Twyfelfontein Conservancy, for a total of 12 persons game guards.

The workshop was hosted in Elephant-Human Relations Aid (EHRA) base camp. Where François Theart provided the basic regarding the biology of the snakes, identification and first aid & emergency numbers.

Challenges

Reptiles, especially snakes, can cause a fear reaction in the public and sometimes they are called “the deadliest creatures on earth” that can “attack without warning.” While only 20 percent of the more than 3,000 species of snakes worldwide are venomous, these slithering reptiles often get a bad rap.

Data plays a key role in our work in educating communities on the important ecological role that snakes have. Therefore we are dealing with some challenges in the organization of this workshop/training around the 86 conservancies in Namibia. 

We need YOU, contact us to check who can you support our team. 

Next step

From December 2019 until February 2020, TOSCO in coordination with NNF and Snakes of Namibia will travel around Namibia, visiting the conservancies and giving this awareness workshop and setting up a protocol to collect data.

What is Snakes of Namibia?

Was established in December 2013 and consists of various volunteers that mitigate conflict between humans-snakes. In 2015 Snakes of Namibia formed a partnership with the Namibia university of Science and Technology in order to research the underlying issue of human-snake conflict in Namibia. A paper titled ‘A spatial and Temporal assessment of snakes in Windhoek” was published in December 2018. Currently our goal is to look at the effects of relocation on snakes in Namibia this project will start in February 2019 and aims to come up with sustainable and proven conservation methods. 

Websites:

Home

http://snakesofnamibia.com

Articles:

http://bit.ly/Snake_Workshop_Conservancies