JRS grantee Conserve Global is turning up surprising results in biodiversity surveys within its project Advancing Community Conservation Management through Integrated Habitat Monitoring in Northern Zambia Game Management Areas. The project is achieving its aims for a better understanding of the region’s plant diversity, habitat, and land cover patterns across the Tondwa Game Management Areas.

The past six months have been especially productive for the Conserve Global team: in March and April they completed a second, and more comprehensive, series of field surveys with participation from the Forestry Department officials from the district and a regional ecologist from the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW). This survey provided details on the immense floral diversity encountered and important observations on the relationship between diversity and habitat type.  A total of 274 herbarium specimens were collected and will be analyzed at the Forestry Research Herbarium in Kitwe. Notable findings included four potentially undescribed Othoptera species (grasshoppers and katydids) and a likely undescribed plant species (Aneilema spp.)

Team members are happy to report that the project is approaching a place where the maps and tools are almost ready to be shared with a whole range of audiences.

Read more about the Advancing Community Conservation Management through Integrated Habitat Monitoring in Northern Zambia Game Management Areas here.