The sharing of knowledge between scientific collaborators involved in PilotMAB and local communities from the Man and Biosphere Reserves vicinity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an important facet of the project. Such exchanges are essential in the prospect of improving the sustainable management of the tropical rainforests and gain scientific insights on its working dynamics.
It goes without saying that an immense pool of knowledge on the forest and its functioning has been acquired over multiple generations by the people who live on its edge or directly in it, and whose livelihood often depends on it. Furthermore, it is also safe to say that the management of ecosystem services improves when knowledge of ecosystem functioning, including the role of human interference, and global change dynamics improve. In this context, the sharing of knowledge would likely be beneficial for all actors involved.
An ambition of the PilotMAB project is therefore to promote knowledge dissemination and to offer training sessions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, specifically oriented toward the scientific community, the future generations (local schools), the local professionals (scientists, students, technical professionals), and the policy makers. In the future, once the collaboration between partners from the DRC and Belgium won’t be prevented by a global pandemic, multiple thematic training programs will be organized in partnership with the ERAIFT and WWF-DRC.
The present website is also intended to play a key role in the outreach and knowledge dissemination. Multiples news regarding the activities carried out in the framework of PilotMAB can already be consulted and the didactic materials will be available from this page after the launching of the training programs. Additionally, this platform is also intended to host data and reference works linked with the Man and Biosphere Reserves, and more largely all forest ecosystems of the DRC.
Félix Laurent, 20/05/2020
