Protected Area Watch for the Albertine Rift (PAWAR)

 

The Protected Area Watch for the Albertine Rift (PAWAR) program promotes the development and use of remote sensing-derived information in conservation policy analysis, as well as encourages dialogue on leading environmental and development concerns in the Albertine Rift region.  The strategy of this project is to increase the flow of remote sensing information into conservation management and analysis at all levels of civil society in support of conservation and decision-making. To this end, the WHRC works in conjunction with a consortium of local, national, and international scientific, non-profit, and government organizations in the Albertine Rift region.

Activities

Activities associated with PAWAR include integrating remote sensing analyses into existing decision support systems, such as the Ugandan Management Information System (MIST); developing Landsat base maps for field surveys, land cover change maps, and burn extent maps; and developing tools to combine information from remote sensing and biodiversity surveys.  The goals are to improve natural resources management, distribute spatial information to support conservation policy analysis, encourage dialogue across a broad user community, and provide technical training to support the long-term use of spatial data and analysis tools.  Results are intended to support the analytical agenda of the Albertine conservation network, which includes African technicians, decision-makers, and donor agencies involved in environmental planning and natural resource management. 

Study Sites

The Woods Hole Research Center’s current efforts are focused in six protected areas in the countries of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).  Future study sites may include more than ten additional national parks, forests, and wildlife reserves in Uganda, DRC, Mozambique, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, and Zambia.

The Woods Hole Research Center's current efforts are focuses in six protected areas in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Future study sites may include more than ten additional national parks, forests, and wildlife reserves in Uganda, DRC, Mozambique, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, and Zambia.

We are currently conducting remote-sensing-based analyses in four protected areas in Uganda:

Each of the parks listed above is part of a larger conservation area managed by either the Uganda Wildlife Authority of the National Forest AUthority and its collaborators.

Two projects are currently underway in areas within the DRC:

Protected areas and proposed protected areas in Uganda and the DRC displayed over MODIS tree cover imagery. Click on the park names above to access individual park pages.The protected areas listed above comprise a representative sample of the northern Albertine Rift's rich diversity of vegetation types, landforms, habitats, and species. For a description of these protected areas and the WHRC's projects and products, please use the above text or map links to access individual site pages.