African Grey Parrots awaiting export in a
dealer’s premises in Cameroon
Community leaders support the
conservation project
School children with a Save the African
Parrots poster and another poster
to encourage community awareness
and supportbranded T-shirts have been distributed
among student participants, community
leaders, volunteers and project team
members.
TRAINING
Training and capacity-building of
selected community members and local
forest and wildlife staff in parrot survey
and monitoring have been successful
and are on-going. With the support of
the Ghana Wildlife Division and the
Wildlife Department of Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science and Technology
(KNUST), the project has trained 16
local forest and wildlife staff, youth
volunteers and students in simple bio-
monitoring survey protocols. Training
Map of the forest
reserve project
locationsdays, including fi eld visits and practical
experiences are undertaken to provide
hands on-experience in parrot ecology,
basic population and research surveys,
use of survey equipment (binoculars,
GPS, compass, fi eld tent, data recording,
fi eld guides etc), community conservation
management and ecotourism, confl ict
resolution and benefi t-sharing. A students’
conservation conference with the theme
Save Our Parrots Now was organised
at KNUST in May 2017, proving to be a
ground-breaking experience for the 250
participating students from across the
south and east of Ghana.NUMBERS IMPROVE
In the subsequent parrot surveys
conducted in the Forest Reserves, the
Black-collared Lovebird was recorded
at fi ve sites in Atewa, and in Bobiri,
African Grey Parrots were recorded at
fi ve sites and Red-fronted Parrots at two.
Furthermore, local market surveys are on-
going to identify parrots and other birds
in trade. In the city of Kumasi (closer to
Bobir), which has large local and regional
markets, nine active traders have been
identifi ed trading lovebirds, Red-fronted
Parrots, African Grey Parrots, pigeons and
other bird species.
As a result of the project campaigns,wildlife staff and community volunteers
now do under-cover patrols and also have
community informants to help monitor and
inform A Rocha and the authorities of any
related trading and poaching practices in
the project target areas and the markets
they encompass.
One of the major lessons from this
project is the need for strong involvement
and stakeholder commitment of local
people for the effective implementation
of all activities in the project areas.
Effectively, collaboration gains the trust
of the communities
and their support
for the project and,
ultimately, this is
what will revive the
African Grey Parrot
in Ghana.LORO PARQUE