Capacity Building
The Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park Forest Elephant Monitoring Program plays an important role in training Congolese researchers, building capacity amongst Congolese staff and nationals. The project currently employs one full time Congolese researcher, working on elephant bai monitoring in the north of the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park. On the job training continues in all aspects of forest elephant research and conservation, including research and monitoring, anti-poaching, data analysis and management, administration and computer skills. In addition, all of the current research assistants have themselves been trained by previous elephant program Congolese research staff, who have since left the program to pursue their academic career. One researcher has received a WCS postgraduate Beinecke fellowship to study at the University of East Anglia, UK in September 2006 where he will analyze the first three year dataset from the elephant bai monitoring program.
Regular training and revision courses for elephant bai monitoring techniques are held for Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park staff at Dzanga Bai by a senior researcher, and two research assistants from Lobéké National Park in Cameroon have also been trained in elephant identification and recapture methods.