Kasanka Trust staff had an epic bush experience

What an amazing 9 days we have just had with our visitors from the University of Sussex!

A total of 20 aspiring BSc and MSc students and 4 staff members from the university joined Kasanka Trust staff for an epic bush experience. During their visit students had the chance to learn new field skills from experienced members of the Kasanka team, including our in-house biologists, community scouts, guides and our photographer. Our guests also enjoyed talks from Kasanka Trust’s management team on topics such as community engagement, wildlife coexistence, wildlife populations and habitat monitoring, maintaining partnerships, park management and law enforcement.

Some of the knowledge exchange included learning about essential survey skills for invertebrates, small mammals, primates, bats, birds, amphibians and community outreach. It has been an absolute pleasure to host this years programme and we are already looking forward to receiving next year’s cohort.

Kasanka Trust has a 5 year agreement with the University of Sussex, which is led by Prof. Fiona Mathews, a renowned mammalogist and a recently elected member of Kasanka’s UK Trust. Prof. Mathews has already made a huge impact with the Trust and has raised significant sums that have helped with the development of Kasanka’s Kinda Camp, a field base for students from all over the world, which is also home to Kasanka Baboon Project’s base camp. Recently Prof. Mathews raised in excess of £2,000 (c. 44,000 Kwacha) by running a half-marathon in support of a project that seeks to employ an early careers, Zambian conservationist to assist our Knowledge Manager here at the Trust.