Kunene Region to host the maiden SCIONA Knowledge Fair
The University of Science and Technology (NUST) will be host a first of its kind, dubbed the SCIONA Knowledge Fair, on 13 to 25 April in the Kunene Region.
The Knowledge Fair is a major event under the European Union funded SCIONA project, titled ‘Co-designing conservation technologies for Iona Skeleton Coast Transfrontier Conservation Area’.
The fair aims to bring together community members, researchers, park managers, rangers, government departments and non-governmental organisations in a common space that they can share knowledge on how to realise sustainable ecosystem management.
According to NUST, the platform will allow for the showcasing of research to communities, who will in turn give feedback from an indigenous knowledge perspective. The concept was inspired by the eBario Knowledge Fair, which is a bi-annual event held in the rainforest of Borneo in South East Asia.
“The fair is important because indigenous knowledge is critical for biodiversity conservation and the exchange of this knowledge is essential to improve ecosystem management. An interdisciplinary research team from NUST and affiliated scientists have collaborated with Namibian and Angolan conservancies for this initiative,” they added.
The fair will have activities such as, walk-shops, which are community led river and ethnobotanical walks, workshops and trainings of skills and competencies related to natural resource conservation and academic presentations, they concluded.
