The West African Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services, WABES is an initiative with the primary aim to facilitate networking and capacity-building across West Africa to support the work programmes of the World Biodiversity council, Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and in particular, its scientific assessments.
As part of its networking activities, training workshops, bringing together Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (BES) experts from universities, research institutions, science-policy interfaces (SPIs), government agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) holders in West Africa and beyond, are held annually to serve as the exchange platforms and distribution hubs for IPBES developments.
These face-to-face workshops are complemented by an online platform available on our website. In parallel, a Master of Science programme on “Managing Science-Policy Interfaces on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for sustainable development in West Africa – SPIBES” was established at the African Center for Excellence on Climate Change, Biodiversity & Sustainable Agriculture (CEA-CCBAD), Université Felix Houphouët-Boigny (UFHB) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in collaboration with our institutional partners. This interdisciplinary graduate programme is open to qualified students from each of the fifteen member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Ultimately, WABES is a pioneer in strengthening the BES sub-regional pool of experts to support and disseminate IPBES assessments.
WABES, a consortium of partner institutions across West Africa and Europe, is funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).