Over 70 environmental experts from Africa, Europe and Asia will convene at the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi from 23rd March for a governance meeting and training workshop organized by the PRESA project.

ICRAF House in Nairobi, Kenya.

The PRESA International Advisory Committee will have its third meeting on Monday 23rd March and elect its chair in a closed session later the same day.

This will be followed by a two week training on BESSA: Building Ecosystem Services Research Capacity for semi-Arid Africa from Tuesday 24th March aimed at strengthening the capacity of African implementers and researchers of Rewards for Environmental Services.

The training will include visits to the Sasumua region of Central kenya and environmental projects initiated by community groups in the the Mount Kenya East eco-region.

The workshop is organized by PRESA in collaboration with the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute of Aberdeen, Scotland. Macaulay is interested in helping develop the evidence base for PRESA through selected studies of the carbon sequestration, water use, and economic profiles of selected land use systems.

Once established, the evidence base will be used to assess ecosystem service tradeoffs and the impacts of various financial and regulatory instruments.

Dr Brent Swallow, who is co-ordinating the PRESA project here in ICRAF, describes next week’s training as, “the biggest event” held by the PRESA project since it began.