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Recent activities

Recent activities

December 2024
December 2024

Animal images from people associated with the Biodiversity Museum at the University of Hargeisa are now being shared with GBIF. At present, most are of insects. but it is designed to make available clear, identifiable, documented images all kinds of animal.

November 2024:  Visiting a site described by Swayne
November 2024: Visiting a site described by Swayne

One of sites visited by Swayne in the late 1800s and by Faisal (SBF) and Xiyar (MoECC) in November 2024.

Added here because it describes documentation of diversity of a small site, including the amount of time spent recording information. It also reflects knowledge accumulated over more than a century of study of bees and wasps in Britain and Europe. A journey of 1000km starts with the first centimeter .....

Faisal has been accepted as a participant in the course on "Plant Taxonomy Skills for Conservation" that will be offered by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in collaboration with the East African Herbarium and the University of Nairobi in Kenya in June 2025.

October 2024: Congratulations Ahmed!
October 2024: Congratulations Ahmed!

On publication of "Rangeland management practices in Somaliland: lessons learned from the Aroori Grazing Reserve" in Rangelands (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019005282400049X).

September 2024: Grant awarded for Environmental History Research
September 2024: Grant awarded for Environmental History Research

A grant was awarded to Stephen Johnson, Faisal Jama Gelle, and Ismael Esse Hayir for their proposed work on "Learning from Swayne and today's elders". Swayne was a big game hunter in the 1870s who provided maps and descriptions of the many areas he visited. Faisal and Ismael will be visiting three of the areas to compare present conditions at three sites with Swayne's descriptions and the perception of local elders concerning any changes.

August 2024: Dr. Tharina Bird leads a 4-day workshop on arthropod collection
August 2024: Dr. Tharina Bird leads a 4-day workshop on arthropod collection

Dr. Tharina Bird, Curator of Entomology at South African's National Natural History Museum, ran a workshop on arthropod collection, sorting and preservation for 16 students from the University of Hargesia at the Geed Deeble Botanic Garden.

August 2024: SBF at the International Book Fair in Hargeisa
August 2024: SBF at the International Book Fair in Hargeisa

Ahmed and Faisal participated in the International Book Fair in Hargeisa, a major event sponsored by the Red Sea Cultural Centre. They spoke about "Introduction to the Plants of Somaliland" (see April) and Faisal presented a poster on work he, Helen Pickering, and Ahmed are preparing on "The history tree of Ina Guuxa".

May 2024
May 2024

Prepared photographs of Ziziphus species for use in a documentation challenge and met with representatives of Amoud University, the University of Burao, and the Somaliland Biodiversity Research Institute.

April 2024
April 2024

Introduction to the plants of Central Somaliland, ed. 2 published. The new edition is bilingual (English and Somali) has improved color, a stronger binding, a brief explanation of why names change, and correction of some errors in the first edition.

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