SESRIC, in collaboration with The Islamic Centre for Development of Trade (ICDT) and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Republic of Turkey, organised a Training Workshop for the Managers of West African Cross-Border Parks and Protected Areas on 05-07 November 2019 in Ankara, Turkey.

The Workshop was attended by the managers of cross-border parks and protected areas from Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Morocco; and the main objective was to reinforce the capacities of the managers of the West African cross-border parks and protected areas by providing them with the information and specific skills to better govern the wetlands and protected areas.

The Workshop included working sessions and discussions on governance and management planning, staff training, sustainable tourism, and best practices in managing protected areas. Three working groups were established to work on a countries’ needs grid with priority measures and recommendations to revitalise the project for sustainable tourism development in a network of cross-border parks and protected areas in West Africa. The results of the working groups were presented and discussed during the last session. The participants also shared their case studies to share existing information from their countries. The programme concluded with a field visit to Soğuksu National Park in Ankara, Turkey.