To learn more about our Rwanda project, the following presentation outlines the results of our first year's work.
Hilary visited 6 locations throughout Rwanda and invited birders, wildlife guides, students and academics to join
field and computer lab training to reinforce and augment the online work. Fifty people came forward and trained in sound
recording using a phone and Parachirp parabola. Six teams were set up involving local collaborations with community
NGOs and schools with ongoing online support. A small number of committed recordists are active. A survey revealed
that time and resources for fieldwork plus a need for more training were constraining participation.
We hope to raise funds to support local trainers. We are revising the training slides to introduce an entry level
recording system using only a phone, sufficient for eBird. For those who develop further interest and competences, the
methodology can then be extended to incorporate full scientific-grade metadata collection for suitable for the Rwanda
Biodiversity Information System.