Club P.A.N.

2010-2011 Club P.A.N. update

2011-10-14T05:02:00.000-07:00

As you know, Côte d’Ivoire was embroiled in civil war this past year. Sadly, because of this, we had to halt Club P.A.N.'s activities half way through the school term in the schools east of Tai National Park (TNP) and we were unable to conduct any lesson in the schools west of the park.

The teacher training did take place in October 2010 before the November elections which resulted in the political crisis that followed. Club P.A.N. then started in November and ran until January 2011 in the six schools east of the TNP.

The project coordinators attempted to go to the six schools west of the park but ran into problems with armed individuals in the region. Luckily however, they were able to remove themselves for the situation without any harm. The coordinators only got as far as Soubré, so the region around Tai village was not visited at all unfortunately.

In May 2011, meetings were held in all of the 6 villages to the West of the TNP where the reasoning behind the cancellation of the Club P.A.N. program was explained to the authorities, the school staff and the pupils. To encourage and support the West communities, alternative activities were carried out in collaboration with the CPE including symbolic tree planting, the Eco-Wozo school competition promoting Taï NP, a “Conservation Night” in Zagné which attracted 3000 local people to the event and a slide-show highlighting Club P.A.N.'s activities from the previous years.

Unfortunately Club P.A.N.'s base office in Soubré was looted in March during the crisis, resulting in much of our material being stolen including the pupils and parents’ final evaluations. To counteract this, we are now in the process of re-doing these final evaluations with the children from the East side schools.

The snail farm in Sakré was badly damaged due to a lack of maintenance of the past months, nevertheless the snails survived and now all that is needed is some repairs to keep the project going.

Despite the very difficult situation this year in Côte d’Ivoire, Club P.A.N. was fully active in the eastern schools. Even though it was impossible to carry out our activities to the west of the park, alternatives were found and implemented. These events demonstrated that the WCF/CPE and Club P.A.N. team is still present and involved in the community and still advocating for nature conservation and education.

One of our major strengths is the positive attitude and motivation of our local coordinators and teachers. Their innovation and creativity, especially in times of turmoil, have always brought people together for the sake of the TNP.

Because each school year we have new children joining the nature clubs and long-term conservation education programs have been shown as efficient to change local attitudes the WCF will continue the nature clubs for a fifth school year in 2011-2012. We also hope to possibly increase the number of participating schools as well as the number of micro-projects connected to the Club P.A.N. schools in the years to follow.

We look forward to a great 2011-2012 year and thank all of our current funders for their continues support!

Club Pan 2011-2012 funding update

2011-10-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

Club P.A.N. has been awarded the following for the 2011-2012 school year!

$4600 (USD) from DierenPark Amersfoort Wildlife Fun
€1180 from Zoo am Meer Bremerhaven
$5003 (USD) from the Keidanren Nature Conservation Fund
$6000 (USD) grant from the Columbus Zoo
€1850 from Yves Rocher Fondation

The Brevard Zoo has also generously donated a 3rd conservation education suitcase (valued at $900 (USD)) to Club P.A.N. since the WCF office in Abidjan was looted during the civil war in April 2011. Major components from our equipment and working materials were also taken. We would like to thank all our generous funders for their ongoing support.

Unfortunately, we were unable to run Club P.A.N. in the six school west of Tai National Park in 2010-2011, but we currently plan to run Club P.A.N. in all the participating schools on both side of the national park this year and we hope that the political situation will allow us to do so.

Club P.A.N. update: during the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire

2011-04-07T01:19:00.000-07:00

We are happy to say that despite the ongoing conflict in Cote d'Ivoire, that our two Ivorien Club P.A.N. coordinators were able to finish the Club P.A.N. program in the east of Tai National park for the 2010-2011 school year.

Currently, they are doing fine and are now preparing the second part of the program in the west of the park, which they will start as soon as the discord calms down.

Our thoughts and hearts are with everyone in Cote d'Ivoire and we hope for a speedy and placid end to the conflict.

the Keidanren Nature Conservation Fund supports the 2011-2012 Club P.A.N. school year

2011-04-05T11:56:00.000-07:00

Club P.A.N. has received an additional $5000 from the Keidanren Nature Conservation Fund, a division of the Tumitomo Trust & Banking Co., Ltd. We thank them whole heartedly for their support!

Club P.A.N. obtains first funds for 2011/2012 school year (but still more needed :)

2011-03-10T03:59:00.000-08:00

Great news! Amersfoort Zoo will continue their support of Club P.A.N. into the 2011/2012 school year! The money will go towards funding the teachers' salaries to the tune of $4600. Thank you to Amersfoort Zoo for their continued support!

We are still looking for support for the upcoming Club P.A.N. year please contact Julia Riedel if you are able to support us (riedel AT eva.mpg.de)

Congratulations to Club P.A.N.'s Julia Riedel: Yves Rocher Fondation Umweltpreis 2011 Trophée de femmes winner

2011-02-15T21:26:00.000-08:00

Club P.A.N.'s Julia Riedel recently won third prize (3000 euros) for Club P.A.N. through the Yves Rocher Fondation Umweltpreis 2011 Trophée de femmes. Congratulations!

The Trophée de femmes awards women working with environmental projects with the common goal of creating a future worth living. The Environmental Award honors women who contribute to nature and biodiversity, and often do so in secret. About 200 winners in over 50 countries around the world have been honored for their exemplary commitment to environmental protection and nature conservation.

The German press release can be found here: http://www.eva.mpg.de/german/press.htm

! Congratulations Julia !

Quick update on the snail farm

2010-11-05T04:09:00.000-07:00

Claudia Borchers, who is in the Tai region right now working with Club P.A.N. and the snail farm, updates us with the following:

Hi all,

After another visit of our snail farm in Sakré last week I'm happy to present you some new photos. Everything is working well and the eggs are now already 3-4cm big snails. I was quite surprised that they already as big as they are! they are only 5 month old, but that means that they can really sell them when they are one year old! Beside this we have again a new clutch and baby snails will hatch soon. The project is a real success and I (in behalf of the conservation group) would like to thank again everybody that contributed!

Best
Claudia

To read more about the snail farm microproject see our previous entries HERE

More funders for 2010-2011 Club P.A.N. school year!

2010-08-26T07:11:00.000-07:00

Club P.A.N. has been awarded a $4600 (USD) grant from DierenPark Amersfoort Wildlife Fund, a $2000 (USD) grant from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, a 5000 £ Rufford Small Grant, a 1000€ grant from Zoo am Meer Bremerhaven, a $1725 (USD) grant from Keidanren Nature Conservation Fund and 1080€ from the Johannes Kepler Gymnasium Leipzig to run Club P.A.N. in 2010-2011!

We would like to thank our returning funders and welcome our new collaborators into the Club P.A.N. family! Thank You so much for your generosity and support!

Club P.A.N. 2009-2010 update

2010-08-26T06:33:00.000-07:00

The 2009-2010 Club P.A.N. school year ended well and evaluations are going to be analyzed in the next month!

We are very happy to announce that Club P.A.N. succesfully expanded two new schools (in Daobly and Amaragui) which welcomed two new teachers and 120 new students to the nature clubs. Thus in 2009-2010, 12 schools with over 800 students participated in Club P.A.N.. All teachers attended two teacher training workshops and the vast majority of parents and relatives celebrated the parent's days with us. We also had parent's evenings this year, a new nature club session just for parents!

Our African Giant Snail Farm micro-project in the Club P.A.N. school of Sakré has also been successful! In January 2010, the farm was build with 6 enclosures and a starting population of 40 adult breeding snails. By May 2010, the adult snails had laid their first eggs and from these eggs the first baby snails already hatched. In July 2010, the adult snails laid another clutch of eggs (circled in red below). We thank the Sakré Club P.A.N. students and teachers who have worked so hard to make this micro project such a big success and the generous private donors who funded the project!

Sadly, Emile Gnepa, our Zirigilo Club P.A.N. teacher passed away this year in May. Mr. Gnepa was not only an excellent and motivated Club P.A.N. teacher from 2007-present, but also a teacher hired by the WCF to teach the everyday curriculum to the students of the E.P.P. Ziriglo school. For the coming school year we received applications from two other teachers in Ziriglo to lead the nature clubs. Mr. Gnepa's legacy will live on in all the students he taught and inspired during his too brief time with us.

Emile Gnepa with his Club P.A.N. students

Finally we would once again like to thank the funders for the 2009-2010 Club P.A.N. school year: US Fish and Wildlife Service Great Ape Conservation Fund (USFW GACF), the Oregon Zoo, the Columbus Zoo & Spreadshirt and Zoo am Meer Bremerhaven. Without their generous support our work would not be possible. Thank You.

Rest in Peace Emile Gnepa, Club P.A.N. Ziriglo and W.C.F. teacher

2010-05-06T13:58:00.000-07:00

We are so very sad to announce that Emile Gnepa passed away on May 4th 2010.

Emile was not only a Club P.A.N. teacher from 2007-present, but also a teacher hired by the W.C.F. to teach the everyday curriculum to the students of the E.P.P. Ziriglo school. He was an excellent and motivated teacher and it will be extremely difficult to follow in his footsteps. He taught the first five Club P.A.N. lessons this year in Ziriglo (January-February 2010) and the remaining five lessons will now be lead by Club P.A.N.'s local coordinator Ouattara Dabila. The 2009-2010 Club P.A.N. school year will end in May and it is so sad that it ends like this.

Our condolences go out to Emile's family, friends and students. He was a great teacher and Club P.A.N. is the poorer for losing him. He will be greatly missed by all.

Please see below for a few images from Emile's classes over the past 4 years.

~*~

Nous sommes tristes de vous annoncer la mort d'Émile Gnepa le 4 mai dernier.

Émile était non seulement un professeur pour le Club P.A.N. depuis 2007, mais aussi un professeur permanent engagé par la WCF pour enseigner à l'école de Ziriglo. Il était très motivé et un excellent professeur. De ce fait, il sera extrêment difficle de trouver un remplaçant à sa hauteur. Il a animé les cinq premières leçons du Club P.A.N. cette année (janvier et février 2010) à Ziriglo et maintenant les cing dernières leçons seront animées par le coordonateur local du Club P.A.N., Ouattara Dabila. Les animations du Club P.A.N. pour l'année 2009-2010 se termineront à la fin mai, il est ainsi malheureux de finir cette année avec ce triste événement.

Nos sincères condoléances vont à la famille d'Émile, ses amis et élèves. Il était un professeur exemplaire et le Club P.A.N. se retrouve perdant de par ce tragique sort du destin.

Veuillez regarger ci-dessous pour des images de la classe d'Émile au cours des dernières années.

(Thanks to Genevieve Campbell for the french translation)

In the News: WCS' Snail Farms in the Cross River Region of Nigeria

2010-04-28T18:52:00.001-07:00

From Discovery News
Snails Are Saving Endangered Gorillas
by Jennifer Viegas

Humble snails are helping to prevent Cross River gorilla poaching in Nigeria, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The WCS has just launched a new program that promotes snail farming, which helps local people generate income, provides an alternative source of animal protein, and hopefully will eliminate illegal hunting of what is Africa’s rarest and most endangered great ape.

Eight former gorilla hunters were selected from four villages to participate in the new initiative. With help from the WCS, they've constructed snail pens, each of which was stocked with 230 African giant snails. Because of the snail’s high protein content, coupled with low maintenance costs, quick results, and easy replication, snail farming is expected to catch on quickly.

Just as French chefs prize snails, locals there view these gastropods as a delicacy and the high demand for them in villages and larger communities makes the prospect of farming viable.

“People living near Cross River gorillas have trouble finding alternative sources of income and food and that’s why they poach,” said James Deutsch, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Africa program. “We are working with them to test many livelihood alternatives, but perhaps the most promising, not to mention novel, is snail farming.”

Once thought to be extinct, Cross River gorillas were rediscovered in the 1980s. The most endangered of the African apes, Cross River gorillas now number less than 300. Even if just a handful are taken as bushmeat, the killings can really put a dent in the gorilla's already weakened population.

Get this: The operation cost per year for each snail farmer, after necessary replacement of nets and cement and labor costs, is estimated at only $87. The profit, after expenses, with the sale of an average of 1500 snails per bi-annual harvest, is estimated at $413 per year. The meat of one gorilla, on the other hand, fetches about $70.

“Cross-River gorillas depend on law enforcement and conservation efforts to survive,” says Andrew Dunn, WCS Nigeria Country Director. “The work of WCS and our dedicated field-staff to develop alternate livelihoods for local poachers is just one step on the road to recovery for these incredible animals.”

The Minnesota Zoo's conservation commitment

2010-04-21T14:54:00.001-07:00

The Minnesota Zoo generously funded Club P.A.N. from 2008-2009 and as you can see from the article below has a firm commitment to conservation and education.

from Minnesota Monthly
New Zoo
The Minnesota Zoo has never had gorillas, lions, elephants, or rhinos—and still won’t after its first permanent African exhibit opens this month. But does that matter anymore?
By Tim Gihring

At a recent meet-and-greet held by the Minnesota Zoo, a host of its most monied backers mingled at the Minneapolis Club—far from the animals in Apple Valley. They breakfasted on eggs and sausage amid dark-paneled walls and oil paintings, looking up now and then at a PowerPoint presentation led by the zoo’s director, Lee Ehmke. Eventually, Ehmke paused on a slide depicting lions, gorillas, and the quarterback Brett Favre. What did the animals and the aging athlete have in common? Ehmke explained that they were all large, crowd-pleasing animals, or—in zookeeper’s parlance—“charismatic mega-vertebrates.”

Since the zoo opened, in 1978, it has often been faulted for its distinct lack of such beasts, the sort that visitors to many other zoos take for granted: elephants, rhinoceroses, and yes, lions and gorillas. The Minnesota Zoo has even been accused of not “being complete,” as one legislator put it years ago, raising questions of what a contemporary zoo should look like.

At the meet-and-greet, Ehmke, who has run the zoo since 2000, offered a simple explanation for the big animals’ absence: They’re expensive, both to acquire and to keep, especially African animals and particularly in Minnesota’s climate. The zoo has an annual operating budget of only about $19 million, supplied in part by a fickle state legislature—much less than the budget of other Midwestern zoos, such as those in St. Louis and Milwaukee. “We’re a small-market group,” Ehmke told the zoo’s backers.

But what if the zoo could become more than the sum of its smallish parts? Continuing the slide show, Ehmke flipped to images of the species that will be showcased in “Faces of the African Forest,” opening this month as the zoo’s first permanent exhibit of African animals. Zoo officials say the attraction will be a model, in some ways, for future zoo exhibits and could goose attendance this summer to a record high. The animals include two species of monkeys, fruit bats, rock hyrax (gopher-like creatures), dwarf crocodiles, and Ehmke’s favorite—red river hogs.

From his office at the zoo, Lee Ehmke can see the facility’s empty and crumbling whale tank, a reminder of the zoo’s controversial relationship with big animals. The zoo opened in what many zoo directors now refer to as the “utopian period” of zoo-building, characterized by wide-open, natural spaces—“500 acres and a monorail,” Ehmke muses. It was a reaction to the tile-and-bars aesthetic of many zoo exhibits at the time, such as the Milwaukee Zoo’s quarters for Samson, the largest gorilla ever in captivity: a linoleum cell with a glass wall that he would vigorously assault with all of his 650 pounds. The Minnesota Zoo was conceived as the area’s “new zoo,” in contrast to St. Paul’s Como Zoo, which was smaller and more old-fashioned at the time. It was designed to be, at 485 acres, the most spacious, modern exhibition in the country and planners estimated that the concept would easily draw 2.5 million visitors annually—4 million by the year 2000—and become self-sustaining within a few years.

The execution was less impressive. Only a third of the proposed exhibits were ever built. The contemporary concrete architecture was beyond stark—“Brutalist,” Ehmke calls it—and visitors had difficulty spotting the animals, lounging deep in their pens. Moreover, the creatures were largely unexotic: deer, raccoons, and the like. The zoo’s most charismatic animals, introduced at the opening, were two beluga whales. After they were shipped to the San Diego Zoo in 1987 for health reasons, attendance—which had never topped 1 million visitors—went into a free fall.

In a 1987 report, zoo officials argued that within the “conservation-minded framework” of progressive zoos, “the absence of some of the charismatic mega-vertebrates will no longer be perceived as a deficiency.” Whales, gorillas, rhinos—“All real big, exciting animals,” an official clarified—wouldn’t be missed. But legislators felt duped. When the zoo instead proposed an exhibit of insects, lawmakers declared that the institution had succumbed to “academic elitism.” Governor Rudy Perpich called for the zoo to be spun off as a nonprofit business.

Ehmke can empathize: “No one wants to walk a mile to maybe see a deer,” he says. He was hired a decade ago to add some “wow appeal,” as he put it at the time, to the zoo’s exhibits. Laid-back, with a wry sense of humor, he comes across as more intellectual than idealist. And it was clear he had nothing against charismatic mega-vertebrates: As an exhibit designer at the Bronx Zoo, he’d created its signature attraction, the Congo Gorilla Forest, featuring, well, gorillas—lots of them.

Ehmke is now slowly reversing the Minnesota Zoo’s old layout, creating so-called “immersive exhibits” that draw animals closer to visitors by means of food, heated rocks, and other enticements. For “Russia’s Grizzly Coast,” a $24 million fantasia that opened in 2008, he brought in Amur leopards and grizzly bears, luring them so close to the viewing glass that the bears’ massive heads are occasionally pressed against it. Last year, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums declared “Russia’s Grizzly Coast” the best new exhibit in the country, and attendance spiked by 15 percent over 2008 to a record 1.35 million visitors. Attendance has now increased 40 percent in the last five years, and legislators are pleased: Over the last several years, they’ve awarded the zoo some $66 million, including $21 million this year.

But Ehmke can’t afford to stock every new exhibit with bears or equally large equivalents. Nor does he believe it’s always necessary. “It’s not just about having the crowd pleasers,” he says, echoing the zoo’s former insect proponents. Like them, he believes that contemporary zoos should be in the business of conservation as much as entertainment, helping preserve animals in the wild as well as at home. “All great zoos are committed to taking on the bigger conservation issues of the world,” says Ehmke, “and we want to be perceived as a great zoo.” Going a step further, he says, “If you take away the conservation part, I’m not sure there would be a good reason to have zoos.”

Ehmke now has a simple requirement for all new or remodeled exhibits: “We want to link everything we do here at the zoo to some conservation effort in the place where the animals are from.” In 2008, as the zoo’s designers conceived “Faces of the African Forest,” Ehmke hired Tara Harris, a young conservation biologist who, when she’s not monitoring the zoo’s sustainability measures, studies mountain zebras in Namibia. The next year, the zoo hired Jeff Muntifering, a conservation biologist based in Namibia. In his early thirties, Muntifering tracks black rhinoceroses—a species poached to the brink of extinction—from a base so remote that locals call it World’s End. The two hires tripled the zoo’s conservation department and staked the organization in Africa, the world’s most prominent conservation battleground. The stage for displaying African animals was set.

This emphasis on conservation isn’t expected to draw additional visitors to the Africa exhibit, Ehmke says. (As one zoo director has put it, no one goes to zoos “to eat their vitamins.”) But if it’s not a pull, it might just be a push. In his office, Ehmke keeps a paper written by former Bronx Zoo director Bill Conway, revered in zoo circles as the father of modern zoo exhibitions, called “How to Exhibit a Bullfrog: A Bedtime Story for Zoo Men.” (“The gender reference tells you how long ago we’re talking,” Ehmke notes.) In the paper, Conway imagines an amazing exhibit centered around the common bullfrog—or rather, its engaging environment: a periscope shows a small-mouth bass fanning its eggs, cutaway tunnels reveal amphibians. Conway suggests that well-designed displays open the door to exhibits about habitats, rather than any particular species, much less large ones. “The idea was that any animal could be interesting if exhibited and interpreted creatively,” Ehmke says.

Among Ehmke’s favorite zoos is the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, in Tucson, which encompasses just 21 acres and displays no animals larger than black bears (the smallest are ants). The evocative settings, approximating the Sonora Desert, steal the show. The Santa Barbara Zoo, in southern California, recently opened a similar exhibit called Rattlesnake Canyon, which uses reptiles and amphibians to represent the habitat of the nearby Los Padres National Forest. “There’s a lot you can do with small things,” says Rich Block, the zoo’s chief executive officer.

If the Minnesota Zoo’s original designers had the right idea about conservation highlighting the importance of humble creatures—and vice versa—they may have been wrong about the presentation. “What’s changed,” says Ehmke, “is that we’ve realized we’re not re-creating nature. We’re not giving the animals a natural existence—they live at the zoo. They’re being managed by people, which in many cases doesn’t mean turning them loose on five acres and calling it a day.” In other words, you don’t put the bullfrog in a swamp. You put it in a nightclub.

Faces of the african Forest” is located on the zoo’s Tropics Trail, a balmy indoor garden the size of one-and-a-half football fields. The space is among the zoo’s signature attractions and a popular spot for weddings (vows are typically exchanged under a thatched hut), although no marriages will be consecrated there this summer. It’s being remodeled with a stronger conservation focus to house animals from five so-called hot spots, habitats with high biodiversity that are also highly threatened.

Ehmke stands inside the Africa exhibit amid artisans shaping concrete into ersatz trees and vines. “Naturalistic,” Ehmke calls the exhibit, not natural. The space is long and tall but not deep, like a diorama. The animals will be up front—the crocodiles lounging in pools, the monkeys in the trees—and Ehmke’s signature tricks will showcase even the least charismatic species in unusual ways. “Crocs are immobile except maybe twice a day,” Ehmke explains, so he’s designed an overhead pool that allows views of the reptiles from below. A zookeeper hidden inside a hollow “tree” can unleash food through a tubelike “branch” into a clearing in the exhibit, drawing the monkeys into the open. Kids can get closer looks by crawling into a log that juts into the exhibit, surreptitiously surveying the action through viewing portholes. “It’s like set design,” Ehmke says.

In this artificial environment, the animals become “ambassadors,” Ehmke says, for their embattled brethren in the real world. As such, they have the potential to deliver a conservation message to an immense audience—about 180 million people annually visit the 221 zoos accredited by the AZA (by contrast, the Sierra Club and World Wildlife Federation each have just over 1 million members). “The Nature Conservancy and groups like that are great,” says Rick Barongi, head of the Houston Zoo and one of the field’s most vocal proponents of conservation. “But zoos attract more people. They’re probably the best billboard advertisement that animals can have.”

Animals also deliver the message in an almost personal way, argues Block of the Santa Barbara Zoo. “People develop a relationship with the animals they love at the zoo,” he says. “So when they are approached by a World Wildlife Federation, or any other conservation group, they are that much more in tune with the message—and more willing to part with the dollars. I’ve never formed a relationship with any conservation group because of Animal Planet.”

Block is quick to add, though, that people are more likely to bond with, say, gorillas than hyrax—no matter how well they’re presented. “Those big charismatic vertebrates,” he muses. “The fact is, having those icons at the forefront raises visibility.” Tigers and pandas are popular. “Whales do well, too,” he adds.

Zoos may have changed immensely over the years—“About the only thing that resembles zoos of the past is that we have animals on exhibit,” says Block—but the public’s perception of them hasn’t changed as much. “The public has a certain expectation to see gorillas,” says AZA executive director Jim Maddy. “The exotic animals.” In later years, even Bill Conway conceded the limits of his bullfrog theory. As Ehmke wanders through the African exhibit, he clarifies that the zoo would love to have more charismatic animals and says it plans to build a penguin exhibit soon. “I would love to have gorillas,” he says. But they need to be in large social groups, they need more stimulus, and the cost of care is high. “We are constantly trying to balance the natural attractiveness of those charismatic mega-vertebrates,” he says, “with what works at our zoo.”

Ehmke notes that initial concepts for what later became “Russia’s Grizzly Coast” did not include grizzly bears. Zoo officials debated the value of displaying a large animal versus the cost, and concluded that in order to make the splash it was looking for, it needed a heavyweight—a species, frankly, that would look good on posters. Otters weren’t enough. Nor were leopards. “Not all animals,” Ehmke says, “are created equal.”

Projet Escargot/Snail Project in Sakré built and operational!

2010-03-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

Please watch our newest video above, for a small update on Club P.A.N.'s snail micro-project in the village of Sakré, Cote d'Ivoire.

All photos by Claudia Borchers and a big thanks to her and Mr Ouattara Dabila for organizing and overseeing the construction and initial set-up of the snail farm!

See our previous entries on the snail farm:
Please support our Giant African Snail Microproject
THANK YOU!!! 947.52€ raised!!!

5000£ Rufford Small Grant for Club P.A.N. 2010-2011!!!

2010-01-27T08:42:00.000-08:00

The Rufford Smalls Grant Foundation has awarded club P.A.N. with another 5000£ (GBP) for the 2010-2011 school year! We would like to thank the foundation for their generosity and continued support of Club P.A.N.!

More funding for the 2010-2011 Club P.A.N. year from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo!

2010-01-18T06:24:00.000-08:00

We are so very happy to announce that Club P.A.N. has been awarded $2000 (USD) from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and Cleveland Zoological Society conservation grants program for the 2010-11 school year. This is the second year that the Cleveland Zoo is funding Club P.A.N. and we thank them for their continued support and generosity.

THANK YOU!!! updated !!!947.52€ raised!!!

2009-12-18T08:36:00.000-08:00

Many Thanks to the following for helping us raise 947.52€ for our African Giant snail farm mircoproject:

Karline Janmaat, Andrew Fowler, Claudia Nebel, Adrian Melnyk, Martha Robbins, Julia Cissewski, Genevieve Campbell, Julia Riedel, Imong Inaoyom Sunday, Jessica Junker, Grit Schubert, Martin Surbeck, Claudia Borchers, Karin Bahrke, Roger Mundry, Dieter Lukas, Claudio Tennie, Andreas & Sabine Schubert, Katharina Matschke, Jessica Ganas, Cliff Coppolino, Katie Gray, Charles Janson, Carol, Kevin & "Ursie the Purse" Rowney-Langergraber, Yi-Chiao Chan, Louwtjie du Toit, Jörg Dietrich, Juliane Straub, Jojo Bhagavatula, Ingrid Verhoeckx, Juliane Kaminski, Vanessa Van Doren

We hope to start the farm as early as January 2010. Please bookmark our blog to keep up to date on the farm and Club P.A.N.'s activities.

Many, many thanks & Happy Holidays from the MPI-EVA Conservation group!

!!!updated!!!: Please support our Giant African Snail Microproject

2009-12-16T11:41:00.000-08:00

In conjunction with Club P.A.N., a conservation education project around the Tai National Park (TNP), Cote d'Ivoire, we plan to establish an African Giant Snail Farm micro-project in the village of Sakré.

Club P.A.N. Sakré is one of our most successful and enthusiastic member schools and we hope to further motivate the club P.A.N. students by rewarding them with the snail micro-project.

Snail meat is thoroughly enjoyed by the local people around TNP but is currently not domestically raised in any of the villages surrounding the forest. By creating a snail farm, we hope to provide a cheap and desirable, alternative protein source to the people around the TNP with the overall aim of decreasing bushmeat hunting in the protected area

In only two years the project will become self sustaining and all income will be reinvested in Club P.A.N. Sakré.

We are looking for private donations to get this program underway, every little bit counts towards our budget of 700€! If you would like to donate please contact Julia Riedel (riedel-at-eva.mpg.de)

UPDATE:
Total Amount Needed: 700€
Raised so Far: 947.52€ !!!

Still Needed: 0€

The Conservation Group would like to thank the following for their kind donations:
Karline Janmaat, Andrew Fowler, Claudia Nebel, Adrian Melnyk, Martha Robbins, Julia Cissewski, Genevieve Campbell, Julia Riedel, Imong Inaoyom Sunday, Jessica Junker, Grit Schubert, Martin Surbeck, Claudia Borchers, Karin Bahrke, Roger Mundry, Dieter Lukas, Claudio Tennie, Andreas & Sabine Schubert, Katharina Matschke, Jessica Ganas, Cliff Coppolino, Katie Gray, Charles Janson, Carol, Kevin & "Ursie the Purse" Rowney-Langergraber, Yi-Chiao Chan, Louwtjie du Toit, Jörg Dietrich, Juliane Straub, Jojo Bhagavatula, Ingrid Verhoeckx, Juliane Kaminski, Vanessa Van Doren

Amersfoort Zoo funding recieved for 2010-2011 Club P.A.N. year!

2009-11-25T09:33:00.000-08:00

We are happy to announce that we have received $4600(USD) in funding from the DierenPark Amersfoort Wildlife Fund (DPAWF) for the 2010-2011 Club P.A.N. School year! This money will be allocated towards paying the salary of the four teachers entirely employed by the W.C.F. for Club P.A.N. This is the second year that the Amersfoort Zoo is funding the club and we thank them for their continued support and generosity.

Two NEW Club P.A.N. schools & the 2009 teacher workshop

2009-11-25T09:20:00.000-08:00

Club P.A.N. teacher training October 2009

The 2009-2010 Club P.A.N. school year is now well underway!

As previously mentioned, all funding is secured for this school year thanks to the generosity of the US Fish and Wildlife Service Great Ape Conservation Fund (USFW GACF), the Oregon Zoo, the Columbus Zoo & Spreadshirt

We are very happy to announce that Club P.A.N. has expanded to two new schools and welcomed two new teachers into the fold in this year. 120 new students from the villages of Daobly and Amaragui are now part of the Club P.A.N. family. That makes 813 students enrolled in Club P.A.N. in 2009-2010!

The first teacher training was lead by Claudia Borchers in October of this year and was a success. All of the teachers are extremly motivated and we all look forward to a great 2009-2010.

Article on Club P.A.N. and Club Ebobo published!

2009-11-25T06:18:00.000-08:00

Claudia Borchers, Julia Riedel, Christophe Boesch & Thomas Breuer just published a paper in La Revue de Primatologie Titled Deux programmes d’éducation environnementale pour la conservation des grands singes africains: Club Ebobo et Club P.A.N. (Two environmental education programs for the conservation of the African great apes: Club Ebobo and Club P.A.N.)

English Abstract
In this article we will present two long term environmental education projects which aim to raise awareness about the protection of great apes and their tropical rainforest habitat. Club Ebobo is based around the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, Republic of Congo and Club P.A.N. around the Taï National Park, Ivory Coast. In both projects, children learn about the importance of the conservation of their regional ecosystems and the protection of the endangered great apes living close to them – the west African chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) in Ivory Coast, and the western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in the Republic of Congo. Both projects take place in villages close to the named national parks and are conducted with the help of regional coordinators and teachers. The projects are well accepted in the region and are a part of the conservation efforts conducted for the conservation of great apes. We summarize the success and challenges that we encountered with both nature clubs and make some recommendations on how to improve environmental education.

The entire article in french can be found here

Great News! All 10 Club P.A.N. lessons now available for FREE download

2009-11-21T08:28:00.000-08:00

Since the inception of Club P.A.N., we have been using a set of ten conservation education lessons developped and designed by the Primate Conservation Group of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Wild Chimpanzee Foundation, two professional illustrators and a book editor. These lessons can now be downloaded for free! All pictures and texts were developed by the above mentioned, who are owners of the copyrights and credits. You are welcome to freely use these materials for non-commercial activities under the condition that the original content and aims are respected and the logo and names of the above mentioned are highlighted.
The lessons are in French. Each lesson is approximately 20 pages long and includes the theoretical background and facts about the topic. Each lesson is filled with a large variety of teaching tools and activities including comic strips, songs, games, quizzes, mazes, spot-the-difference pictures, experiments and suggestions for nature walks.

The lesson topics are:

All lessons can also be downloaded from the WCF website

Leipzig International School Visits the MPI-EVA to learn about the WCF, conservation & Club P.A.N.

2009-10-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

On Monday, September 21^st, the 7^th graders from the Leipzig International School visited the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology to learn about the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation, Club. P.A.N. & conservation. Read about there visit by clicking here.

Slideshow: Images from Club P.A.N.'s 2008-2009 school year

2009-10-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

The 2008-2009 Club P.A.N. school year awas a huge success, and we have compiled some images from the various schools into the slideshow above, enjoy!

The evaluation results from the first and second school year showed that the participating children's knowledge of environmental issues increased by 50%. This included information on the local flora and fauna, but also about biological facts and global environmental issues. Furthermore, the evaluation results of the second school year showed that the children changed their attitudes concerning the consumption of bushmeat. Prior to attending Club P.A.N. only 46% of children had negative feelings towards consuming bushmeat but after the lessons over 66% of participants felt that way (an increase of 20%).
Of the 763 children of both school years that were asked whether or not they enjoyed participating in Club P.A.N., 753 children (99%) answered that they “greatly enjoyed” Club P.A.N.. The remaining 10 children (1%) said that they did not like participating in the Club.
Of the 753 children of both school years that were asked whether they would like to participate in a nature club again in the following year, 94% answered “yes”. Thus, pupils not only learnt about biology and conservation but they also enjoyed doing so and would like to continue to do so in the year to come.
Using these evaluation results, we show that Club P.A.N. was able to increase the knowledge of the children and to change attitudes concerning the consumption of bushmeat and we were able to create a fun and dynamic learning environment that the children enjoyed and that they hope to continue with in the year to come.

New Club P.A.N. videos!

2009-08-01T01:51:00.000-07:00

Adrian Melnyk of Schumachermeister productions has created a new Club P.A.N. video in English, French and German to showcase the program, its particpants and nature conservation around Tai National Park in Cote d'Ivoire!

please visit schumachermeister.com to watch!

Club P.A.N. is supported by Spreadshirt

2009-06-18T04:05:00.000-07:00

Spreadshirt has been supporting Club P.A.N. with discounted T-shirts for the students, teachers and supporters of Club P.A.N. since 2007. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Spreadshirt for their continued support!

If you would like to order a Club P.A.N. t-shirt, please contact Julia Riedel at riedel"at"eva.mpg.de

US Fish & WIldlife Great Ape Conservation Fund Grant for the WCF and Club P.A.N.!

2009-04-09T08:32:00.000-07:00

Club P.A.N. has been awarded a $52,749 (USD) grant from US Fish and Wildlife to run Club P.A.N. in 2009-2010 and undertake a bushmeat market survey to evaluate the impacts of the Club on poaching around Tai National Park.
We are extremely excited about this development and look forward to a fun and rewarding school year!

Schulzentrum Friesgasse students & teachers support Club P.A.N.!

2009-04-01T08:22:00.000-07:00

From the 18-20th March 2009, two members of the conservation group of the MPI-EVA, Caroline Deimel & Julia Riedel, visited the Schulzentrum Friesgasse school in Vienna, Austria. In collaboration with the biology teachers of the school, Caro and Julia presented Club P.A.N.'s activities to the students and fund raised for the 2008-2009 school year of the club.

In total, 17 classes (1A/B/C/D, 2A/B/C, 3A/B/C, 4A/B/C, 5A/B & 8A/B) participated and took park in a variety of activities: All classes listened to a one hour presentation on wild chimpanzees, threats to African apes and conservation.

Class 4A had a full day project and made posters depicting the 3 African great ape species and the rainforest for display in their biology class room. Students from the class also wrote letters to the Ivorian students of Club P.A.N. and will now be taking part in a letter exchange with the Club P.A.N. schools. Class 4A was also treated to a two hour cooking session in the school's kitchen where Caro & Julia cooked African food (yam, plantains, sweet potatoes with peanut and pumpkinseed-sauce) for the students.

Class 4A from the Schulzentrum Friesgasse school in Vienna, Austria

Each child contributed 2 Euros to the Club PAN project, which translates into a t-shirt for one Ivorian pupil each. All together, the pupils donated 880 Euros. The organizing teacher, Mag. Karin Kneringer-Kwapil and her husband Clemens topped up the sum to 1000 euros!!! The headmaster of the school, Sister Beatrix, donated another 100 Euros to Club P.A.N. summimg to a total of 1100 Euros!

We would like to thank the Schulzentrum Friesgasse students and teachers for a great day and their very generous contributions to Club P.A.N.! Herzlich Dank an alle & Merci a tous!

Mag. Karin Kneringer-Kwapil

Students making the rainforest poster

Students in front of their chimpanzee poster

Students making the gorilla poster

Students making the bonobo poster

More funding for the 2008-2009 club P.A.N. school year!

2009-04-01T07:44:00.000-07:00

The Zoo am Meer Bremerhaven has generously donated 1000€ to support Club P.A.N.'s activities this year. The WCF, Conservation Group of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and all the members of Club P.A.N. are thrilled to include the Zoo am Meer Bremerhaven amongst its supporters this year!

Funding for 2009-2010 school year

2009-03-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

Club P.A.N. has been awarded two grants for the 2009-2010 school year: $3054 (USD) from the Oregon Zoo and $5000 (USD) from the Columbus Zoo.
We are extremely excited about these developments and look forward to a fun and rewarding school year!

More support from the Brevard Zoo

2009-03-23T07:33:00.001-07:00

The Brevard Zoo has generously donated a 2nd conservation education suitcase (valued at $900 (USD)) to Club P.A.N. for the 2008-2009 school year.
The suitcase contains puppets, maps, books and other teaching materials for the students and are used in every club P.A.N. lesson.

Leipzig Zoo supports Club P.A.N.

2008-12-02T03:10:00.000-08:00

The Leipzig Zoo announced that they will be supporting the 2008-2009 session of Club P.A.N. by donating €6500 (~$8,210 USD) to the project by the end of January 2009.

The Wild Chimpanzee Foundation and the Conservation Group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology are extremely grateful for this outpouring of generosity from the Leipzig Zoo.

New Club P.A.N. video

2008-11-12T04:08:00.000-08:00

A movie put together by Cristina Gomes, video from Julia Riedel, from the 2007-2008 Club P.A.N. year

Capacity building for environmental education

2008-11-07T04:55:00.000-08:00

Report: Club P.A.N. teacher training session and workshop, Soubré, Ivory Coast (October 24th – 26th, 2008)

Despite the massive success of Club P.A.N. in its first year of operations, we realized that several of our teachers are not well educated in biology and that some capacity building was needed so that they would be better able to teach the Club P.A.N. lessons. To guarantee that the lesson plan and activities we developed could have the utmost impact during the school year, we decided to host training sessions to increase the capacity for environmental education in the Club P.A.N. teachers in Ivory Coast. Funding for this teacher outreach program was obtained from the Minnesota Zoo. Thus, the second year of Club P.A.N. began with a 3 day workshop for five of the ten Club P.A.N. teachers in Soubré, located on the eastern side of the Taï National Park, Ivory Coast.

The five Club P.A.N. teachers of the eastern side of Taï National Park.

The teachers from the western side of the park will also be involved in a second workshop programmed for December 2008 in Taï village. For logistical reasons it was not possible to bring all the teachers to one location in October, as the western teachers were unable to travel to Soubré for several days as the school year had already begun.

The five Club P.A.N. teachers of the western side of Taï National Park together with Mr. Ouattara the local coordinator of the nature club.

Table 1 outlines the schedule of the October workshop. During this training session, Claudia Borchers, a member of the Max Planck Institute Conservation Group, taught the Club P.A.N. teachers basic biology and environmental education. She used power point presentations with biological definitions and facts combined with games, songs, role-playing activities, movies and poems, to not only educate the teachers, but to also show them how best to interact with the children participating in Club P.A.N.. Special emphasis was placed on pedagogical methods like group-work, science experiments, and outdoor excursions to interact with the natural world.

Claudia Borchers during an excursion with the teachers in Soubré. This excursion was about soil, air and water pollution. Here the participants discuss how the oil from the truck is polluting the soil. The teachers will do this same excursions with the Club P.A.N. students.

Mr. Ouattara & Mr. Guilahoux, the on site coordinators of Club P.A.N. along with Claudia Borchers presented the attendance and evaluation results from the 2007-2008 Club P.A.N. and discussed these results along with how to improve Club P.A.N. for the 2008-2009 school year. Firstly, a detailed teaching schedule was devised by the working group so that Club P.A.N could be planned around the existing curriculum. Secondly, as was done last year, teachers presented practice lessons to each other and afterwards discussed and gave feedback on the presentations. The teachers were incredibly motivated to learn more about biology and ecology and were keenly interested in the nature documentaries and slide shows that were presented. They also greatly enjoyed the games and the experiments which they assured us would be incorporated to a greater degree into the lessons. Everyone agreed that Club P.A.N. should not be like any normal school lessons but highly interactive and fun.

Table 1: Schedule of the September workshop
24.10.08
9am: Opening of the workshop and teacher training by Claudia Borchers, Mr. Ouattara & Mr. Guilahoux, Mr. Douhoure (the primary school inspector) and Col. Tondossama (the director of Taï National Park)
10am: Discuss the first Club P.A.N. year.
* Presentation of results and pitfalls of year 1
11am: Organize the second year of Club P.A.N.:
1. Present the problems with this years budget shortage
2. Present and develop the 2008-2009 timetable
3. Presentation on the importance of evaluations and how to properly undertake a scientific evaluation
2pm: Work on lessons 1-5 Pedagogical methods: games, group-work, experiments, excursions
* Define the key aspects of each lesson
* Reiteration of the most important biological knowledge from each lesson

25.10.08
8:30am: Work on lessons 6-10 Pedagogical methods: games, group-work, experiments, excursions
* Define the key aspects of each lesson
* Reiteration of the most important biological knowledge from each lesson
2:30pm: Discussion: utilization of experiments and games
Organization of parents’ day: how best to get the conservation message out of the schools and into the villages
3:30pm: Preparation of the practice lessons
4:30pm: Watch documentary film about insects

26.10.08
8:30am: Two practice lessons with children and discussion about the pedagogical methods and the content used
2:30pm: Visit to a cane rat farm: School children can learn to raise cane rats as an alternative to bushmeat hunting in the national park

We would like to give our deepest thanks to the Minnesota Zoo for funding this workshop

UPDATE: Club P.A.N. is now featured on the Minnesota Zoo's webpage under their Ulysses S. Seal Conservation Grant Program Awards section

Club P.A.N. day at the Leipzig Zoo

2008-11-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

Julia Riedel fundraising for Club P.A.N. at the Leipzig Zoo

Thanks to everyone who visited us at the Leipzig Zoo Saturday, Nov 1st!

Our three Club P.A.N. gorillas entertained zoo visitors while members of the MPI Conservation Group guided children in chimpanzee mask making. Visitors also were treated to monkey oragami courtesy of Gouagami (Click here to make your own!) and could sign their name on a leaf to add it to our conservation tree.

We raised just under 100€ today and the money will be used to support Club P.A.N.'s activities in Ivory Coast.

If you would like to donate to Club P.A.N. please visit the WCF website or contact Julia Riedel: riedel-at-eva.mpg.de

THANKS AGAIN!

The Club P.A.N. gorillas
(Laura Muniz, Jessica Junker & Mimi Arandjelovic)

Julia Riedel & Caroline Deimel help children and parents make chimpanzee masks

Adrian Melnyk shows a visitor how to make a
Gouagami mokey (click here for instructions!)

Caroline Deimel, Julia Riedel and Adrian Melnyk making masks and Gouagami

The Club P.A.N. gorillas entertaining zoo visitors

Franka Simea Schaebs adds signed leaves to our conservation tree

Julia Riedel and Doreen Schulz crafting with zoo visitors

Grit Schubert demonstrates how to make a
Gouagami monkey (click here for instructions!)

Club P.A.N. July 2008 update

2008-07-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Due to the massive success of Club P.A.N.'s first year, the club will be continuing on in the 2008-2009 school year.
the Conservation Group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology's Department of Primatology is currently looking for funding for the second year of Club P.A.N.'s activities and is happy to report that $2,500 (USD) from the Minnesota Zoo's Ulysses S. Seal Conservation Grant Program and $4,220 (USD) from the Amersfoort Zoo's Jellow Wildlife Fund has already been awarded to the club. Several other grants have been submitted and we are still in need of much funding to assure that all operations run smoothly in 2008-2009, if you are interested in funding club P.A.N., please contact Julia Riedel (riedel @ eva.mpg.de) or Hedwige Boesch (hboesch @ eva.mpg.de).

The Conservation Group is made up entirely of graduate students from the department who want to participate in conservation activities in addition to their doctoral studies.
The current members of Club P.A.N. are:
Caroline Deimel, Cristina Gomes, Geneviève Campbell, Grit Schubert, Julia Riedel, Laura Muniz, Mimi Arandjelovic, Sandra Tranquilli, Thomas Breuer, Yasmin Moebius & Claudia Borchers.
from left to right:Mimi, Genevieve, Cristina, Julia, Laura, Yasmin, Caroline, Grit, Thomas, Sandra & Claudia (front and center: Ursus & Ronja)

To read up on how Club P.A.N. got started visit our earlier post on the conservation group or visit club P.A.N. on the WCF webapge
The WCF provides the infrastructure and capacity for the Conservation Group to carry out Club P.A.N. in Ivory Coast. Dr. Ilka Herbinger of the WCF, Ivory Coast will continue to run and organize the logistics for the project in country. Guilahoux Hilaire (Coordonnateur Général CPE) and Ouattara Dabila (Coordonnateur CPE-IEP, Soubré) will also continue to run the day-to-day operations of Club P.A.N. in 2008-2009 and travel between all the villages and classes where the club is held. Without their dedication and support the program would never have attained the success that it has so far.

We look forward to a productive, enlightening and fun 2008!

Club P.A.N. February 2008 update

2008-04-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

Club P.A.N. has now been up and running since October 2007, each of the classes participating in club P.A.N. have been guided through one nature lesson per week so far and everything has been running even better than expected!

In February, Club P.A.N. held a “journée pedagogique”, a day for the various teachers, assistants and students of club P.A.N. to come together and exchange their ideas and experiences on the lessons and activities. Below are some of the videos and photos from the day and from the lessons that have taken place so far.

The exchange was fruitful and a huge success, many important dignitaries from the Taï region and beyond were present to show their support for club P.A.N. Some of the classes have even come up with club P.A.N. songs composed by the school groups themselves. We hope to pick the best song at the end of the year as our club P.A.N. theme!

The Conservation Group would like to thank the organizers of Club P.A.N operating in Ivory Coast (click on all images to enlarge):

as well as the many suporters of club P.A.N.:

Club P.A.N. would not be possible without the help of the directors of the participating schools:

and the teachers that give the lessons (a few of whom are shown below):

Below are some images and videos taken from the Club P.A.N. classes that were ongoing in February 2008 (all pictures taken by Julia Reidel)
Club P.A.N. Paulé-oula:

Club P.A.N Sakré 1. Their instructor, Modeste Gnonkonte (in orange) built this bamboo outdoor classroom for his students so that they would be immersed in the nature they are studying.

Club P.A.N. Ziriglo:

Some more images from the February classes:

Finally, a few videos of the classes and songs that have been developped by the clubs:
Club P.A.N. Sakré present their songs about "le papillion" (the butterfly) and Club P.A.N.:

A girl from the club P.A.N. that operates in the village of Petit Tiemé, sings the Petit Tiemé club P.A.N. song:

The Club P.A.N. that operates in the village of Ziriglo, is shown in this video clip from one of their meetings in February 2008.

October 2007 workshop in Abidjan, Ivory Coast

2008-04-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

In October 2007, a Workshop was hosted by Cristina Gomes, Chloe Cipoletta, Dr. Ilka Herbinger, Mr Guilahoux Hilaire and Mr Ouattara Dabila, where the teachers from the Club P.A.N. schools were introduced to the project.

The goal of the workshop was to introduce the teachers from the schools around the Tai National Park to the lessons and activities of club P.A.N. In the clip you will see the teachers acting as if they are students learning the lessons.

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology's Conservation Group & Club P.A.N.

2008-04-04T08:43:00.000-07:00

(from left to right, rear row: Thomas Breuer, Cristina Gomes, Celestin Kouakou, Mimi Arandjelovic. front row: Julia Riedel, Shelly Masi, Claudia Borchers)

Club P.A.N. is the brain child of Thomas Breuer and Julia Riedel. Thomas has been involved in a similar program Club Ebobo in schools around the field site at which he studies gorillas, Mbeli Bai, Republic of Congo. Julia has been involved in a cultural exchange project between German and Ivorian schools and thought that a Club Ebobo-type program in Ivory Coast would be perfect for a school system without any environmental studies.

Conservation Group Members who participated in the creation of Club P.A.N. are: Cristina Gomes, Thomas Breuer, Julia Riedel, Mimi Arandjelovic, Shelly Masi and Geneviève Campbell.

The Conservation Group approached the WCF with the club P.A.N. concept, in order to use their framework, solid infrastructure and strong ties with the Ivorian school system (Ministère de l’éducation National: Inspection de l’enseignement Primaire de Soubré1 (CPE)) to plan and organize the activities of the education program. Club P.A.N. has so far been able to obtain funding from the following granting agencies: Cleveland Zoo ($2981 USD), Columbus Zoo ($5000 USD), Rufford Small Grant (£4503 BPS), the WWF (2,952,000 FCFA) and a Conservation Education Suitcase from the Brevard Zoo (valued at $900 (USD)).

The Conservation Group was also responsible for designing the 10 lessons for club P.A.N. for the 2007-2008 schoo l year. Club P.A.N. is indebted to the many francophone translators who translated our lessons into french, to the artisits, Claudia Farack & Heike Opizzo, and book editor, Andrea Farack, who volunteered their time and skill in illustrating the pages of our text book.

Dr. Ilka Herbinger of the WCF, Ivory Coast has been running the program and organizing the logistics for the project in country. Two Ivorian nationals, Mr Guilahoux Hilaire, (Coordonnateur Général CPE) and Mr Ouattara Dabila (Coordonnateur CPE-IEP, Soubré), have also recently joined the project and will be travelling between the 10 schools around the Tai National Park to supervise and guide the teachers through the club P.A.N. lessons. Club P.A.N. will be operating in the following villages in 2007-2008:

Ziriglo
Sakré
Diéro-oula
Paulé-oula
Taï
Petit Tiémé
and 4 schools in Soubré.

Our 2007-2008 funders:

Welcome to the club P.A.N. blog

2008-04-04T08:37:00.000-07:00

Please visit the club P.A.N. site for more information

Club P.A.N. is part of the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation's conservation education program currently operating around the Tai National Park in Ivory Coast. The Tai National Park is the largest undisturbed forest block in all of West Africa and home to a large number of western chimpanzees, hence our name P.A.N (the genus name for chimpanzees). P.A.N. also stands for Personnes, Animaux, Nature (People, Animals Nature) as educating people is a crucial part of nature conservation.
The conservation goals of Club P.A.N.

* To teach children around Taï NP about the flora and fauna of the region's ecosystem, so that they appreciate and take pride in the biodiversity that exists in their region
* To teach children basic knowledge on environmental issues in order to promote care and awareness towards nature conservation and its significance
* To discourage the trade in illegal bushmeat by reducing the likelihood that the current generation of children will consume or trade bushmeat in the future
* To promote the conservation and research activities undertaken within the Taï NP, with people that would otherwise have very little contact with the protected area

Bushmeat hunting in the tropics and Ivory Coast
Tropical forests were once widespread throughout West Africa but are continuing to decline, from more than 40 million ha to less than 8 million ha today (Martin, 1989). Consequently, the wildlife in the forests of these tropical countries is also declining at a tremendous rate due to various threats, but most notably due to bushmeat hunting, driven by an ever-increasing protein demand by some of the world's poorest people. Furthermore, the bushmeat trade is the key contributor to local economies in tropical Africa and elsewhere (Robinson et al., 1999; Robinson & Bennett, 2000; Milner-Gullard et al., 2003).

Less than 10% of the original forest-cover remains in Ivory Coast (FAO/World Bank, 1988). The Taï National Park (NP) and the neighboring Reserve N'Zo total 536,000 ha and represent the largest intact and protected forest block in West Africa. The area was registered as a Biosphere Reserve in 1978 and as a UNESCO World heritage site four years later (Boesch & Boesch-Achermann, 2000). The Taï NP harbours more than 1400 species of vascular plants, as well as 11 primate species, including the Western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) and a large population of red colobus monkeys (Procolobus badius). The pygmy hippo (Cheoropsis liberensis) is also endemic to this region.

The human population around the Taï NP has increased from 23,000 individuals in 1965 to 375,000 inhabitants in 1988 (Boesch & Boesch-Achermann, 2000). This population increase was caused by immigration from both Liberian refugees and settlers from the Sahel region. Settlers from the Sahel immigrated to the region in hopes of establishing farms in deforested areas and gaining employment in the expanding timber industry (Martin, 1991). Refugees from Liberia immigrating into the region caused a 400% increase in human population density in villages west of the Taï NP, reaching up to 135 people/km2 in one area (Boesch & Boesch-Achermann, 2000, Kormos et al., 2003). The mass immigration to the region has also resulted in illegal farming activities within the Taï NP (Boesch & Boesch-Achermann, 2000).

These factors have certainly increased the demand for bushmeat in the region and are unquestionably having negative impacts on the local wildlife populations. The decline of some species, such as the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), have already been studied and documented (Merz & Hoppe-Dominik, 1991). The largest forest elephant population was once found in Taï NP and was estimated to include 800 individuals. However, by the end of the 1980s the population had declined to less than 100 elephants in the region (Merz & Hoppe-Dominik, 1991). Today, the elephants are locally extinct in some areas of the park and researchers only rarely encounter indirect signs of their presence.

Although it is officially forbidden to kill, consume or trade wild animals in Ivory Coast, wildlife harvesting happens on both local and commercial scales with wildlife from within the Taï NP supplying meat for both markets (Caspary et al., 2001)., Illegal hunting is widespread and bushmeat markets are flourishing (Caspary et al., 2001). In 1996, 35.5 million wild animals, totaling 120,000 tons and worth 117 million euros (149 million US dollars), were killed by Ivorian hunters (Caspary et al., 2001). Around Taï NP, Refisch & Koné (2005) estimated that primates were the most commonly hunted taxa and that for most species, hunting was unsustainable. International developing and conservation organizations such as the KfW (Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau), GTZ (Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit), the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), the WCF (Wild Chimpanzee Foundation) together with the OIPR (Office Ivorien des Parcs et Reserves en Cote dIvoire) try to fight against the threats that pose on the fauna and flora of the park through law enforcement, effective surveillance and management techniques, bio-monitoring and education programs and developmental support for neighboring villages.

The chimpanzee population in Ivory Coast is believed to be amongst the largest in West Africa but has dramatically declined from over 100,000 to less than 10,000 individuals in the past few decades (Kormos et al., 2003). Poaching of wildlife has had both direct (chimpanzees constitute around 3% of the species sold in urban markets and served in village restaurants (Caspary et al., 2001)) and indirect consequences for the chimpanzee population in Taï NP. Snares which are laid out to kill forest duikers have caused mortality and injury to the chimpanzees in the region (Boesch & Boesch-Achermann, 2000). The presence of poachers can also be very stressful to the animals and hence increase mortality among the chimpanzee population (Boesch & Boesch-Achermann, 2000). Furthermore, chimpanzees are considered as pests due their occasional consumption of crops. It is suspected that this crop raiding behavior has led to the death of many male chimpanzees from the chimpanzee research project in the park (Boesch & Boesch-Achermann, 2000). Chimpanzees were once common in Taï NP but are now abundant only in areas where researchers are studying their behavior (Kormos et al., 2003).

In addition to short-term projects aimed at reducing the impact of bushmeat hunting on local wildlife populations, such as increased anti-poaching patrols and other law-enforcement strategies, it is important to consider long-term programs to protect endangered wildlife. In this respect public outreach and awareness programs can play a vital role in changing local attitudes towards the intrinsic value of wildlife.

Conservation education is seen as a priority action for the conservation of chimpanzees and other wildlife (Kormos et al., 2003). Awareness raising campaigns of the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (WCF) in the past have conveyed the need to conserve chimpanzees through interactive theaters, discussion rounds, films and newsletters. This has happened both at a local scale around Taï NP and internationally. These campaigns are often targeted at adults whereas long-term approaches oriented towards the next generation, have only rarely been employed thus far. Therefore, the conservation group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig Germany (made up of graduate students from the department of primatology) approached the WCF to expand their education activities to include the local schools around the park and from this union, club P.A.N. was created.