BMCA Receives Equipment to Boost SMART Data Collection | International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP)International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP)

Monitoring and accurate reporting are key in safeguarding mountain gorillas. To strengthen this effort IGCP has handed over 48 Black view mobile phone handsets, 1 laptop computer, 30 power banks, 6 solar chargers and 2 external hard drives to Bwindi Mgahinga Conservation Area. The equipment is aimed at boosting the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool being used to monitor species and illegal activities within the park. The equipment will as well improve data collection which has remained a big challenge in BMCA.

While receiving the equipment recently, Nelson Guma – the Chief Warden BMCA expressed gratitude to IGCP for the continued support in bettering data collection and monitoring of mountain gorillas. “We are grateful to IGCP for the support. We are optimistic that this new equipment will boost SMART data collection, analysis and reporting and give better guidance to management in decision making for actions around BMCA”. Database managers and field officers also got a one-week intensive training on how to use the new gadgets.

Since June 2015, IGCP has been supporting Bwindi Mgahinga Conservation Area (BMCA) to monitor species and illegal activities using Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART).  However, a  number of challenges including technical malfunctioning of the equipment and inadequate data management capacity have hindered smooth implementation of SMART. It is the hope of IGCP that the new equipment is going to solve most of the existing challenges. Thanks to WWF, FFI and CI for enabling this service to BMCA