We are delighted to share that in September 2024, the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) featured the SPIBES MSc programme in a story on its website, highlighting how young African professionals are being empowered to tackle the biodiversity and climate challenges facing the continent.
The story brings together the voices of six SPIBES students and alumni, each offering a personal account of what the programme has meant for their scientific development, their engagement with international processes such as IPBES, and their ambitions for the future. Those featured include:
Andrew Orina (Kenya), researching the ecological value of pastoral forage trees in Turkana; Mulabengwa Mbulo (Zambia), focused on sustainable land use and biodiversity conservation; Chanis Clèche (Republic of Congo), working to make the Congo Basin’s biodiversity heard on the international stage; Prisca Kouakou (Côte d’Ivoire), now a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge; Diallo Abdoulaye Djibril (Guinea), currently working as a biodiversity consultant on World Bank-financed projects; and Rejoice Vimbiso Matangi (Zimbabwe), studying sustainable fisheries management at Lake Kariba.
Their stories reflect the breadth and ambition of the SPIBES programme — and the difference that rigorous, internationally grounded training can make for the next generation of African conservation scientists and policymakers.
You can read the full story on the UNEP-WCMC website here.
