This project mobilizes existing biodiversity data for 31 species of Kenya’s small carnivores to develop a national strategy for their conservation. Project partners work together under the newly created Small Carnivore Conservation Task Force to collate, digitize and publish existing records from museum vouchers, literature and observations.
Based on available data, the project maps the distribution of each of the species and assist policy makers to prioritize conservation schemes.
The first of the two workshops planned by the project, Introduction to Biodiversity Informatics and Georeferencing, was completed. Participants came from three Kenyan universities, the National Museums of Kenya and Mpala Research Center and were introduced to the concept of the project, trained in data digitization, mobilization and georeferencing, and tasked to locate existing records for specific species.
Preparations to organize the second workshop scheduled at the end of March 2017, Appplication of Biodiversity Data for Coservation & Management, are well underway.
336 records of small carnivores from the Mammalogy section at the National Museums of Kenya have been digitized into excel.