Nigerian conservationist Edem Eniang has emerged because the West Africa regional chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Snake Specialist Group, inserting him in a regional management function in efforts to strengthen snake conservation and coordinate analysis throughout the sub-region.
His emergence comes because the group works to ascertain its regional constructions, membership lists and specialist working teams, alongside a revised course of for admitting members.
In a message of appointment shared with PREMIUM TIMES by Mr Eniang, the organisation stated they’d gained momentum following latest engagements at a gathering of the Wildlife Conservation Society, with encouraging responses throughout and after the convention.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Eniang a professor and government director of the Biodiversity Preservation Centre, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, was Nigeria’s solely consultant on the first World Congress on Snakes held from 1 to 4 October in Sri Lanka.
The organisation stated it was creating paperwork and techniques, together with phrases of reference for regional chairs, membership lists, working teams and a clearer organisational construction.
The proposed preparations are meant to enhance coordination amongst regional groups, alternate concepts and scale back duplication of conservation actions.
The proposed coordination framework would come with on-line conferences of regional chairs 3 times a 12 months, with separate quarterly conferences between every regional chair and members of their respective areas.
IUCN acknowledged that the conferences would assist specialists share updates on the group’s priorities and alternate concepts with out duplicating ongoing work. They additionally proposed holding a short introductory assembly for regional chairs earlier than the top of 2026.
Global conservation community
The IUCN Snake Specialist Group is a part of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, a world community of consultants that gives scientific recommendation on species conservation and helps efforts to handle threats to wildlife.
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According to the group’s official website, its work covers data of snake populations, conservation planning, evaluation of threats, coverage steering and public training aimed toward decreasing battle between folks and snakes.
The group focuses on hundreds of snake species worldwide, though some teams, together with vipers and sea snakes within the subfamily Hydrophiinae, fall beneath separate specialist teams.
Mr Eniang’s appointment provides Nigeria illustration within the group’s rising regional management construction at a time when coordination amongst researchers and conservation practitioners is being strengthened.
Other regional chairs listed within the message embody Tim Colston and Adriaan Jordaan for East and Southern Africa; Chifundera Kusamba for Central Africa; Steven Allain for Europe; Evan Quah and Justin Bernstein for East and South-East Asia; and Melissa Bruton for Australia, Oceania and Melanesia.
The message additionally listed regional representatives for South Asia, North America, Central America and the Caribbean.
The group stated it could flow into additional info on its organisational preparations and membership as soon as the related paperwork and techniques had been prepared.
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