Strategic Aim and Mission

Our vision for the BCE stream is to provide globally relevant, African-centred research and post-graduate training to improve the biodiversity knowledge, ecological understanding and conservation status of Africa's biodiversity.

Our mission is to develop human and institutional capacity through the pursuit of scientific knowledge of species and ecosystems, and to enable sound management decisions for the monitoring, mitigation and conservation of this unique asset.   

Specific Focus

BCE does not limit its research focus to any geographical region, but in general aims its research at conservation problems in Africa. However, conservation problems are often of international interest and projects are therefore chosen and designed through international collaboration to include global significance. Conservation research is concerned both with the formal protected area networks as well as with the impact of threats on biodiversity within and outside of these areas. In addition, our experiences with solving conservation problems have recognised the importance of integrating information from a wide range of sub-disciplines if solutions are to be found. Ecology, systematics, biogeography, biomonitoring and experimental biology, as well as social sciences, are all important research fields required to attain informed and effective mitigation. We regard local, regional and international networks and partnerships as critical for the success of our research, education and social responsiveness programmes.  

Research Objectives

Research Groups