On 25 February 2021, a mini-consultation workshop was held on the indicators of conflicts between animals in the Ruvubu NP and local communities living in the area.

This workshop was held at the Ruvubu NP Office and is part of the activities of the study on “Indicators of conflicts between buffaloes in Ruvubu National Park and hippopotamuses in Rusizi National Park and local communities living in Rusizi National Park”. The study is part of a Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) approach that is important for setting up basic indicators for monitoring biodiversity. The activities carried out during this study were jointly identified by the Burundian Office for Environmental Protection (OBPE) and the University of Burundi (UB) and financed by the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (IRSNB) through its CeBIOS Program.

Were present:

The managers of the Ruvubu National Park, the representatives of local communities including the hill administrators at the base, farmers/herders, the representatives of local associations.

Welcome word

At the start of the mini workshop, the Park Manager thanked the participants for responding to the invitation. He told them that it is an honor for the park that such a consultation activity on conflicts between animals (Buffaloes of the Ruvubu NP) and local communities bordering on them is organized and could directly constitute a subject of debate today between the people concerned. He called on participants to closely follow the intervention of the presenter on the results obtained during the surveys and inventories in which some of them had participated.

The designers of the project supported the intervention of the Park Manager and indicated that it is a purely technical meeting where people are called upon to interact on the restoration of data that they themselves had contributed to their collection by gladly agreeing to answer the survey questionnaires. “You are now called for a consultation on this data where you have a great responsibility to confirm that the rapporteurs on this data were faithful and if not, this meeting constitutes a opportunity to correct errors and/or fill in deficiencies. At the end of the exploitation of this data, the document that will be produced will be important to inform decision-makers for consistent decision-making for the management of the park and for your well-being,” they said.

The student carrying the study then presented his survey results. He reviewed the organization of the questionnaire, which includes the following points:

The study area in Ruvubu National Park and the sites visited, the people concerned, their knowledge and perception of the Park, what is the law relating to the protection of the site, the constraints they have to cohabit with the park, the activities of the park where they are involved, the reasons for dissatisfaction, the reasons for dissatisfaction, the animals that are the basis for poor cohabitation, the extent of trashed cultures, their faces to damage recorded, the sanctions imposed on them, their proposal for better governance of the site, etc.

At the end of his presentation, it was time for discussions where the participants spoke and thanked the initiative for the work in progress and the organization of the mini workshop. Comments and additions have been integrated directly

The participants recognized the content of the summary of the compendium of the data collected during the surveys carried out. They noted that they look forward to a popularization of the final document that will be produced.