Scientists from Ghana, Brazil and UK gather in Kumasi to tackle biodiversity crisis with technology

Scientists from Ghana, Brazil, and the UK have converged in Kumasi for a workshop to equip the next generation of conservation researchers. The Biodiversity Monitoring Tools Workshop is running from March 24 to 27, 2026, under the theme: "Capacity Building and Observation Network for Nature and Climate in Tropical Ecosystems (CONNECT)".

The workshop targets postgraduate students, early-career researchers, and biodiversity conservation professionals. It introduces participants to technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI) for biodiversity monitoring, Species Distribution Models (SDMs), and Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis. According to the Living Planet Report 2024, global wildlife populations have declined by an average of 73% between 1970 and 2020. Africa has recorded the second-highest regional decline at 76%. Fillipe Machado França, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, said, "One of the things we would want to achieve is to allow for knowledge exchange and training, what we call capacity building, particularly here in Ghana. We want to fill the science and policy gap. Sometimes we are generating knowledge, but we need to make sure that the knowledge being created here is being adopted and translated into real actions in the real world."

Dr. Mrs. Lucy Mensah, Deputy Director of the CSIR-FORIG, said that partnering with the University of Bristol in the UK and Brazilian colleagues would build the capacity of a new generation of scientists in Ghana. She added that this would help achieve the mandate inscribed by the Government of Ghana, which includes the conservation of biodiversity and forest resources. Dr. Mensah also called on the Ghanaian government to invest in training more professionals in artificial intelligence. Jannatu Fridaus, a researcher from the Department of Marine and Fisheries Sciences at the University of Ghana, said she expects to apply the knowledge gained from the workshop in her research area.