I am a Primatologist specialized in captive and wild nonhuman primate sociobiology. I currently live in northern Congo where for the past 2 years I have been coordinating a program called Sustainable Wildlife Management - SWM aiming at creating the conditions for rural communities o manage wildlife resources themselves, taking ownership and exploiting them in a sustainable way. I am responsible for aspects related to the development of alternative activities to hunting (livestock farming), development of social marketing campaigns for more sustainable consumption of animal protein, and mitigation of risk of zoonoses. I therefore often find myself having to involve stakeholders, that's why I am joining WildHub cours focussing on Stakeholders' engagement!
Additionally, as part of the WildHub community, I am expecting sharing experiences and lessons learned with others on similar interventions with local communities in Conservation and Food Security/Rural Development. I am also interested in following training courses regarding methodologies to be applied to engage rural communities as well as communication in Conservation (storytelling, social marketing campaigns...).
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Welcome to WildHub, Daniela! Your work with primates sounds fascinating, and I would love to hear more about it.
Hi Lara! Happy to share what I know about the sociobiology of primates. I have studied conflict management and the benefits of short- and long-term play in some primate species (gorillas and lemurs), to see if there is a shared biological basis from an evolutionary point of view. For several years now, I have given up research proper and am more specifically involved in conservation (and since I work in the Congo, it goes without saying that I contribute to primate conservation).
Available for exchanges and information sharing!
Great to have you here Daniela, could you share tips on how to rural communities can take ownership of their wildlife resources?
Hi Grace! Thanks for your question! Here some of the "ingredients" we are using in our work...First of all, the legal framework must allow them to do so (laws that give them the right to manage resources directly), then it is important to improve governance at the community level (e.g. they must be able to organise themselves into structured and constituted groups, like associations for example), and of course they must have the resource available, so putting in place activities for resource's' conservation...
Hope I answered to your question!
Yes you did, thank you 😊