In a relatively recent period, warnings have been raised to warn the world's inhabitants about the threats to the future of natural resources in general and biological diversity in particular.

Burundi felt concerned. He developed the National Strategy and Action Plan on Biological Diversity. (SNPA-DB), in order to correct the dysfunction in the conservation of biological diversity, rational use and fair and equitable sharing of biological resources (UNDP, 2000).

The SNPA- DB/BDI/98/G31 project was created to accomplish this mission. Its overall objective is to contribute to the implementation of the SNPA-DB by assessing capacity building needs through defined national priorities:

- Identification of capacity building needs for the implementation of general conservation and sustainable use measures in situ and ex situ
- Identification of needs for capacity building in terms of taxonomy
- Identification of capacity building needs on the methodology for assessing and mitigating specific threats to components of biological diversity
- Identification of needs for capacity building on access to resources and the sharing of benefits arising from their use
- Identification of the needs to strengthen the capacities of the biological diversity information clearing-house.
Studies at the national level on all these priorities have been carried out and have produced reports that highlight conclusions that will certainly be beneficial for the country in general but do not go deep into regional particularities.
To complete these studies, 5 regional consultants were asked to identify capacity building needs for the implementation of the SNPA-DB in the 5 ecological regions of Burundi.