Description

The state of biodiversity is becoming as worrying as the projections on climate change and many questions remain unanswered. In fact, focusing on Africa, more than half of the bird and mammal species will have disappeared by 2100, according to the latest IPBES projections (IPBES, 2019). This emphasizes the urgency of making biodiversity issues a priority for research, but also for environmental governance in order to act as quickly as possible.

To do this, the most suitable instrument remains the observatory, which, through data and indicators can inform us about the state of health of biodiversity, but also about the scope of management and conservation strategies and policies, as well as the roles of different actors. It is with this in mind that West Africa has set up a biodiversity and protected areas observatory (OBAPAO) under the coordination of the IUCN through the Biodiversity and Protected Areas management program (BIOPAMA) in west Africa.

The BIOPAMA Program is an initiative of the Organization of African and Caribbean States and Pacific financed by the European Union. The current action is a continuation of the previous work carried out within the framework of the BIOPAMA program, which is completely in line with the results obtained and the vision for the future.