The Sangha River Network
The Sangha River Network
The Network - Strategic Plan
SRN
Strategic Planning Document
December 2000
Established
by Rebecca Hardin and Heather E. Eves based on questionnaires submitted to SRN
staff and advisors. Our particular gratitude to Theresa Silla, Hilary Kaplan,
André Siamundelé, Patrice Etoungou, Alain Froment, and Eric Worby.
VISION
STATEMENT
To establish a network of international research professionals, local communities, industry personnel, and national governments associated with the transborder Sangha River Region of equatorial Africa, that is actively involved with developing a comprehensive understanding of natural resource bases and social relations regarding resource use, in order to affect innovative, adaptive and appropriate policy, education, and conservation action.
The overarching goals of the Sangha River Network are to:
· Collect and share existing information regarding the natural and social systems of the Sangha River Region of Central Africa among all stakeholders—government agencies, researchers, academic institutions, local communities, policy-makers, industry personnel, and conservationists;
· Provide a neutral forum (through internet and regular meetings) for interdisciplinary discussion, inter-institutional collaboration, and international research to address key scientific and/or policy questions at this regional level.
· Offer opportunities for academic and field research that connect Western and African scholars in concrete collaborative projects, and that strengthen pan-African initiatives for study of the environment and environmental politics at local, national and regional levels.
· Produce, translate and disseminate new works-in-progress that may affect appropriate policy development and conservation action in the region, and/or may have intrinsic intellectual value for specialists working on issues such as transborder environmental management in other areas.
1. Create a collection of information regarding the conservation of natural and social resources in the Sangha River Region of Central Africa;
2. Organize a communications database for the network of professionals able to contribute to information generation as well as for the network of groups or individuals who have requested better access to such information.
3. Disseminate that information, enabling the sharing of information among all stakeholders – researchers, academic institutions, local communities, policy-makers, industry personnel, and conservationist
4. Support interdisciplinary research either in or on the Sangha region, or on topics related to that region’s conservation and development challenges and facilitate production, translation and circulation of those research results.
5. Provide opportunities for exchange of information across disciplines and regions via network conferences, meetings with other similar networks or projects, exchange programs between partner institutions, and Internet discussions or conferences
6. Anchor the network effort in academic institutions with strong links to one another, and to non-academic institutions or initiatives, through a small Faculty Advisory Board and a broader Steering Committee, who will evaluate and guide the ensemble of network activities.
7. Evaluate and synthesize network processes and their results through an annual report with relevance for conservation, education, and development practices in the region, as well as for other network-like initiatives elsewhere.
8. Establish 5 year administrative, personnel, financial, and institutional support to enable the achievement of above-listed objectives.
Create a collection of information regarding the conservation of natural and social resources in the Sangha River Region of Central Africa.
Phase One:
Identifying Available resources
· Complete the trinational project bibliography for the area (currently missing only Cameroon references), listing major works contained in Project Archives to date
· Review and complete this project-based bibliography with academic search engines, NGO compilations of relevant resources, and SRN contacts data base searches for as yet unlisted works
Phase Two: Obtaining Available resources and establishing contribution mechanisms
· Secure copies (written and digital) of project reports from Lac Lobéke (WWF-Cameroon), Dzanga-Sangha (WWF- Central African Republic), and Nouabalé-Ndoki (WCS – Republic of Congo);
· Obtain name and contact information for all researchers who have conducted research in each of the three protected areas (LL-DS-NN) and request copies (written and digital) of papers/reports/results
· Identify key repositories of information (e.g. archives in Europe) from the region and secure written and digital copies of information available from or about those collections;
· Collect information regarding similar networks and transborder management efforts;
· Combine all of the above in a comprehensive bibliography with options for downloading (where authorized by authors) or document order (from authors or via the SRN Internet site, depending on copyright circumstances).
Phase One:
consolidate and organize current contacts
· From working contact list of more than 300 individuals, consolidate all addresses into one data base, with fields specified for nationality, discipline, institutional affiliation, etc.
· Develop interdisciplinary, thematic working group structures suggested by the current steering committee, using a Yale based (and, eventually broader) editorial board to select and edit working papers.
Phase Two:
expand membership and operationalize regular communications
· Identify 5 to 10 key individuals who would be able to assist in information gathering in Europe, Africa, and US and develop specific information topics for them to supply references/documents etc.;
· Identify 3 trinational country contacts and request daily or weekly country news updates regarding the region;
· Establish an SRN Member Communication location on the website for weekly cyber-meetings and working group discussions; be sure that the “Contacts” form, with appropriate fields, is enabled such that new members can add themselves to the group via internet
Enable the sharing of information among stakeholders – researchers, academic institutions, local communities, policy-makers, industry personnel, and conservationists
Phase
one: national governments, communities, conservation organizations, and the
academy (this is concurrent with consolidation of current communications, and is
thus feasible)
· Produce and disseminate bilingual versions of SRN conference proceedings to date among all participants and other interested stakeholders as hard copy documents and as electronic documents available via the SRN website.
Phase Two: private sector actors and active communication (this entails expanded research on this little-represented group of stakeholders and may require some work in the field)
· DevelopSRN Cameroon, CAR, and Congo Website pages, controlled by teams of network members in those countries, in coordination with the website director for SRN
· Identify existing community groups in the Sangha region (churches, schools, credit or business organizations, trade or labor related groups, local and regional government agencies, youth groups, family or clan based councils, local radio correspondents, civic committees, etc) and their mechanisms for disseminating information
· Identify key government agencies and contact persons in US, Europe, and Africa and provide information concerning SRN activities, mission, etc (request information needs from policy personnel to assure information gathering, collection, and generation address immediate government concerns)
· Identify Industry actors in the Sangha region (timber companies, tour operators, mining companies, air or road transport associations, etc) and their mechanisms for disseminating information
· Provide SRN related research reports and networking papers to private sector actors
· Collect information (via survey or interview) about their information needs, history in the region, and plans for further activity…constraints and opportunities)
· Institute annual informational visits among SRN personnel and/or country representatives
Support interdisciplinary research either in or on the Sangha region, or on topics related to that region’s conservation and development challenges and facilitate production, translation and circulation of those research results.
· Develop teaching curriculum using SRN publications on a comparative, cross-disciplinary basis (as in the Laboratoire ERMES –University of Orleans DEA program, or the Yale University Crossing Borders seminar on Environment and Development, both currently underway. These courses will require proposal preparation from students; instructors will select most competitive proposals for funding)
· Secure grants to support interdisciplinary research in the Sangha River Region which addresses key research questions/concerns identified by the Sangha River Network membership (approximately 4 such grants assured for summer work by DEA/Masters/ advanced undergrad level students for summer 2000 as per course requirements, above—further funds must be raised for continuation of this activity and support of postdoctoral level research, as well as for research by students in the trinational region’s universities);
· Establish a proposal review board among SRN Faculty Advisory and Steering Committee members to review and select submitted research proposals to be supported;
· Identify a list of key research topics for proposal development and develop a call for proposals;
· Collect details concerning permits and requirements for conducting research in each of the three SRN region countries and make available on the SRN Website;
· Provide a list of researchers past and present who have worked in the region with specific field site information and contact information for direct researcher-researcher contact.
STRATEGIES
TO ADDRESS OBJECTIVE 5
Provide opportunities for exchange
of information across disciplines and regions via network conferences, meetings
with other similar networks or projects, exchange programs between partner
institutions, a “networking papers series,” and Internet chats or
conferences
· SRN Website development; electronic linking with partner institutions and related networks;
· Develop communications with Peace Parks Foundation and identify possibility of linking SRN and Zambezi River Network with their efforts;
· Found an editorial group (based initially at Yale University, into which members from partner institutions and countries can be incorporated as web-based communication enables such work) for review of original research manuscripts submitted for selection, translation and dissemination in the networking papers series as follows:
· Select from current submitted manuscripts those that will be translated, produced as hard copy working papers under the auspices of Yale Center for International and Area Studies, and posted to the SRN website to spur discussion within initial working groups who will propose activities and means for disseminating their results
· Online Conferencing within network on thematic issues, spurred by networking papers series
· SRN General Membership Conferences every two years ;
· SRN Steering Committee Conferences every two years (opposite year from GM conferences—all meeting rotate location from Africa, to Europe to the U.S.).
Anchor the network effort in academic institutions with strong links to one another, and to non-academic institutions or initiatives, through a small Faculty Advisory Board and a broader Steering Committee, who will evaluate and guide the ensemble of network activities.
· Establish members of a faculty advisory committee based at Yale University, to meet twice during each academic year (fall and spring)
· Confirm members of the existing steering committee via communications that convey faculty advisory committee feedback and solicit further input from steering committee members
· Submit funding proposals for a multi-year grant that would cover operating budget.
Evaluate and synthesize network processes and their results through an annual report with relevance for conservation, education, and development practices in the region, as well as for other network-like initiatives elsewhere.
Annual
report principal authors will include network postdoctoral fellows and program
directors. Reports will reflect some of the most dynamic, detailed research to
emerge from the network’s year of activities, and will advance not only the
knowledge of such themes as reflected in Sangha sites, but also the most recent
innovations for scientific understanding and adaptive management on the chosen
topic. Report topics to be approved by both Faculty advisory AND steering
committee members. They will be
short, refer to more thorough works produced by network members, and will by
highly synthetic, using the Sangha case to illustrate broader issues.
Potential topics
for annual reports include:
· Health and environmental change in the Sangha watershed
· Markets, commodities and the crucial trades in the Sangha watershed (e.g. bushmeat, timber)
· Tourism, hunting and emergent alternative economies for the Sangha watershed
· Remote Sensing and Landscape Change in the Sangha Watershed
· Educational interventions in the Sangha watershed…what works and how… (e.g. missionaries, conservation projects, etc.)
Establish 5 year administrative, personnel, financial, and institutional support to enable the achievement of above-listed objectives.
· Identify the possibility for a faculty-level appointment at Yale, at the minimum, to secure a five-year position enabling the development and implementation of above-listed objectives;
· With support from Faculty Advisory Committee identify management structure and personnel necessary to accomplish the above-listed objectives, develop estimated budgetary needs, and develop a funding proposal to cover implementation;
· Develop formal agreements among Yale, University of Bangui, University of Yaoundé and Dschang, and University of Marion Ngouabi and NGO partner institutions (WCS, WWF, BSP) and government agencies (CARPE, Ministry of Water and Forests Congo/Cameroon/CAR, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Forest Service etc.) for collaboration toward information collection and dissemination through Sangha River Network
About SRN
(English I Francais)
• Plan Stratégique
• Yale Faculty Advisory Committee • SRN
Directors and Student Coordinators • Academics,
Research and Development
International
Steering Committee • SRN Contact and Information
List • Partners • Institutions
and Initiatives
Network • News • Conferences/Workshops • Resources • Contact Information
Sangha River Network • Yale University • Council on African Studies
Luce Hall • 34 Hillhouse Avenue
P.O. Box 208206 • New Haven, CT 06520-8206 USA
Tel: (203) 436-4348 • Fax: (203) 432-5963 • Email: sangha@yale.edu