Recent activities

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.

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).

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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

Aloe kaysei formally named and described. The name honors Kayse Ali, the pastoralist who first noticed it.