MRV Closing Workshop (Cotonou, 17/10-21/10/2016)

From October 17^th to 21^st, CEBioS scientists Anne-Julie Rochette and Maarten Vanhove were in Cotonou (Benin) for the closing workshop of the first call (2015) for projects on Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of biodiversity and biodiversity policy in partner countries of the Belgian development cooperation.

Project participants from Benin, Burundi and the D.R.Congo gathered to exchange the results of their work, best practices and lessons learnt and to share expertise relevant to the subject matter of the different projects. The focus was on national indicator processes and on non-timber forest products, especially medicinal plants. Since communicating the highly policy-relevant outcomes of these projects and the associated management advice at both national and international levels is paramount to this process, a start was made to prepare common outputs of this call, under the form of publications aiming at both policy makers and the scientific community. Presentations given during the workshop are available below.

Also included were short visits to field sites and to the local host institutes and other Beninese partners, such as the Laboratoire de Biomathématiques et d'Estimations Forestières of the Université d’Abomey-Calavi and the Centre d’Études, de Recherches et de formation Forestières of the Direction Générale des Eaux Forêts et Chasse.
CEBioS wishes to thank all organisers and participants for this fruitful workshop; we hope it will have been the first in a long tradition and are looking forward to a continued collaboration on the basis of what was achieved so far.