Lubango – The Smithsonian Institute of the United States of America (USA) will provide 158,000 US dollars which, from February this year, will be used to improve the infrastructure of the Higher Institute of Educational Sciences (ISCED), in Huíla Province, in the south of the country, as well as to collect data on the vegetation of the dry forests of Bicuar National Park, which ANGOP learnt about in the city of Lubango.
The project is part of the international initiative named Group on Earth Observations (GEO-TREE) with the aim of collecting vegetation of the dry forests in tropical regions around the world through permanent endowments.
The project, which will last a year, is being developed by the Centre for the Study of Biodiversity and Environmental Education (CEBEA) in partnership with The University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom) and the Mandume Ya Ndemufayo University (Angola).
The focus is the collection of data which will benefit a series of interesting parts in Angola as well as in other territories such as Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) in the Bicuar National Park with the aim to estimate above-ground carbon stocks and describe spatial variation in vegetation structure.
According to the president of ISCED-Huíla, Helder Bahu, the data will be used in conjunction with spatial LiDAR data to develop vegetation maps of Bicuar National Park, with the aim of benefiting the management efforts of this reserve and the conservation of threatened habitats.
He was speaking at the launching ceremony of the Bicuar-GEO-TREES Project, running under the motto “Biomass assessment, carbon sequestration and infrastructure upgrading in Bicuar National Park”.
According to him, global warming, resulting from greenhouse gas emissions, as well as deforestation, are a concern for humanity, justifying that carbon sequestration" is on the international agenda and this project will generate "valuable" data on vegetation structure and estimate plant biomass in Bicuar National Park.
He emphasised that the social objective of the project is to contribute to the effective management of the park and the improvement of the camp's infrastructure, to ensure the continuity of the sampling work and the maintenance of the permanent plots.
He revealed that 10 master's degree students will be funded and supervised by the project's researchers to form part of the new body of researchers.
Helder Bahu highlighted that ecological dimension is part of the ISCED-Huíla focus, given that the educational institution benefited of a important museum collection of significant biological collections, as well as a teaching laboratory, is invaluable because it represents local biodiversity and stimulates the ideal of preservation in a scenario of "enormous" ecological aggression.
According to him, native reserves are indispensable spaces for positive ecological management, which means that Bicuar National Park is an essential space with several dynamics including the holding of different types of tourism, namely rural, cultural and scientific tourism, as well as ecotourism, among others.
"Fortunately, Bicuar Park is a great laboratory for the students of Biology, the Master's Degree in Ecology and Natural Resource Management and the Centre for Biodiversity and Environmental Education (CEBEA) at ISCED-Huíla. Several studies have been carried out in this park and many articles published, so talking about studies in Bicuar is the same as talking about ISCED-Huíla", he said.
BP/MS/MRA/jmc
