From 22 to 24 May 2024, the Ecological Monitoring Centre, in collaboration with the members of the OBAPAO consortium, UEMOA and IUCN, is organising a workshop in Lomé (Togo) to validate the results of the Observatory for Biodiversity and Protected Areas in West Africa (OBAPAO).
The Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management Programme (BIOPAMA) is an initiative of the ACP Group of States, funded by the European Union's 11th EDF, and implemented jointly by IUCN and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). It aims to improve the long-term conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, protected areas and neighbouring communities through the development and promotion of a range of governance tools, including regional observatories.
With the aim of having a strategic tool for managing information on biodiversity and protected areas in West Africa, IUCN in collaboration with UEMOA launched OBAPAO in November 2019.
After 4 years of implementation work, it is appropriate to take stock of the establishment of OBAPAO, assess the work carried out, the gains made, the impact on the region, the difficulties encountered and look ahead to the future so that OBAPAO can be in line with the objectives of supporting conservation.

The main objective of this meeting is to validate the products and services developed as part of the implementation of OBAPAO, in particular the operational status of the platforms developed (RRIS and Géonode) and the data sharing mechanisms.
Through the PAPBio C2 regional governance project for protected areas in West Africa, IUCN has also made a major contribution to the development of tools such as the Marine and Coastal Information System (SIDMC), the Environmental Crime Information System (SICE), the virtual hub for conservation stakeholders and the semi-automatic tool for ecosystem-based accounting of natural capital (Sys4ENCA), all of which are designed to enhance OBAPAO's functionalities.
During the workshop, discussions will focus on the major issues relating to biodiversity and protected areas in West Africa, based on analyses of the indicators, as well as on the guidelines for the proposed governance, operating methods and operationalisation of the observatory, and on the place and role of the States in this regional mechanism.
This workshop comes at just the right time, as it will provide an exhaustive update on the establishment of the Observatory, but will also serve as a reminder that there are still challenges ahead, such as the full operationalisation of the tool, which will require the involvement of the various stakeholders.

Discussions are also planned on the mechanisms for transition to the 'Biodiversity and Forest' centre of excellence project, as well as those for implementing the CBD's sub-regional centre for scientific and technical cooperation.