Planet Birdsong Foundation: Partnerships

The Planet Birdsong Foundation has a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Rwanda Centre of Excellence in Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management (CoEB). This partnership aims to enable Rwandans to record the acoustic characteristics and variations of all 700 bird species in their country. Data collection and verification is managed in Rwanda; Planet Birdsong provides mentoring and technical support.

We are developing citizen science programmes to increase local engagement and expand participation in the programme. We deliver in-person training in Rwanda, on-line webinars, and manage an active Whatsapp Group providing back up, tutoring and mutual contact between citizen scientists and subject matter experts. This encourages mutual training amongst the group, and enables us to adapt our training in response to citizen scientist activities. Our Trustee Hilary MacBean has visited our established training hubs three times since 2020 and is planning another visit in 2025. The training is modified through user experience, in response to citizen scientist activities.

This year Planet Birdsong was awarded the African Bird Club Conservation Grant which facilitates four of our Rwandan recordists to initiate site visits and attend training events. This recognises that, with appropriate training, African-based citizen science can effectively contribute to mass data collection for conservation and future AI applications. Lead Recordist Mbonigaba Jean de Dieu (Remy) is leading activity and providing local advice. It is our objective to embed the entire project in Rwanda at an early date such that it is sustained in the long term. We are also creating bioacoustic games which increase familiarity with Rwandan bird sounds, and plan to install birdsong studios at key biodiversity education hubs.

Claver Ntoyinkima and Beth Kaplin in the field

Lead Recordist Mbonigaba Jean de Dieu Remy works on audio processing.

Our main partner in Rwanda is Honorary Professor Beth Kaplin, Professor of Conservation Science in the Biology Dept and former Director (2016-2023), of the Centre of Excellence in Biodiversity & Natural Resource Management, a knowledge management research centre aimed at contributing science to policy in support of the Rwandan Sustainable Development Goals, within the College of Sciences and Technology at the University of Rwanda. She is also Research Professor in the School for the Environment and Senior Fellow at the Center of Global Governance and Sustainability, both at University of Massachusetts - Boston. Her current projects include developing the Rwanda Biodiversity Information System (RBIS) as a repository of data for effective policy-making. From 2006 to 2015, Professor Kaplin raised over 1 million USD from the MacArthur Foundation to develop BSc and MSc programs in biodiversity conservation at the National University of Rwanda. She also created the Regional Network for Conservation Educators in the Albertine Rift to support and empower conservation scientists in Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, Tanzania, and Uganda. She recognises the importance of avian taxa as indicator species and encourages ornithological studies and the input of avian data to the RBIS, including data collected by Planet Birdsong recordists. She has initiated a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Rwanda and the Planet Birdsong Foundation and together we seek funding to expand the collection of Rwandan/Albertine Rift bioacoustic data.

Collaboration with Conservation Heritage Turambe

Rwandan participants comprise students and academics in schools, polytechnic colleges, and universities as well as working guides. We are committed to work to internationally accepted qualitative standards and specifications to ensure maximum value from the data. We are providing as many participants as possible with access to recording equipment consisting of parabolic reflectors developed to be compatible with locally available smartphones. Outstanding participants are be provided with additional professional equipment to ensure that all Rwandan bird species are recorded over a period of several years and some rarities are recorded for the first time. Citizen scientist recordists are benefiting from a rigorous data collection regime and learn new skills to take forward into tourist guiding or other careers in the environmental sector. The process is overseen by some of Rwanda’s finest ornithologists, who verify recordings to be stored locally at the Rwanda Biodiversity Information System and globally at e-bird, creating a comprehensive and readily accessible database of Rwandan bird sounds.

Students of Kivu Hills Academy Bird Club, a highly successful partnership.

Field recording with students from IPRC Kitabi and partners, Rugezi Ornithology Centre

Our expert verifiers in Rwanda:

Gael Van de Weghe is a renowned naturalist, photographer and bird identification verifier and the best known ornithologist in Rwanda. With his father, he is author of Birds of Rwanda (2011, updated 2018), published by the Rwanda development Board. He provides bird reporting services in Rwanda and maintains new sighting lists and updates, all in support of Rwandan science and the growing number of active birders. He is a committed supporter of the Planet Birdsong project in Rwanda.

Claver Ntoyinkima is actively verifying records on behalf of Planet Birdsong. He is based in Nyungwe Forest National Park, where he has lived and worked as a guide for many years. He is an expert ornithologist, guide, and trainer. He has contributed to papers, films and books and made a noteworthy contribution to the “Wild Rwanda” by Behrens, Boix and Barnes (Lynx Edicions 2015). Claver is well known for his almost unique capacity to vocalise birds sounds, particularly the localised and often rare Albertine Rift Endemics. This skill is used to the full, to connect visiting birders with elusive forest species. He is the winner of the Tusk Wildlife Ranger Award 2024.

Claudien Nsabagasani is an established birder, trainer and bird tour guide in Rwanda. Claudien is actively verifying bird sound recordings made by citizen scientists contributors to the Planet Birdsong project. He has initiated long term monitoring of both common and endangered species endemic to the Albertine Rift. Claudien has contributed to the ecological studies of rare, endangered and endemic bird species across Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. He brings birding to the public, local communities and schools through the Rwanda Birding Club and his company, Birding and Educational Tours - Rwanda.

Metrics and Results

Our success metrics include seeing participants actively engaged in contributing to practical science at both local and international levels. They are doing so as citizen scientists working within the scope of sustainably implemented development projects and in wildlife tourism.

Find out more about our 2023 training trip here.

A survey of participants trained in Rwanda revealed valuable information on the appetite for citizen science in Rwanda, with strong organisation and motivation characteristics. Around 50 citizen scientists have been trained and a core of around 20 are active at any one time. In October 2024, an audit showed that 418 audio samples had been uploaded to eBird. This is expected to be close to 500 by the end of 2024. Key findings of the survey included the need for more user-friendly data capture and upload systems and the need for more computer equipment and fieldwork resources.

In 2024 a high proportion of eBird data in Rwanda was contributed by Planet Birdsong trained recordists; so we have been actively working with eBird/ Cornell Lab of Ornithology to understand and contribute to raw data collection in East Africa, towards the implementation of AI Apps such as Merlin. This world-wide identification app is bringing bird sound to a much larger audience and will make a significant contribution to AI bird identification, research in the natural sciences and tourist guide and experiences, all benefitting sustainable economic development.