Not for-profit organisations
Commendation: Endangered Wildlife Trust
Conservationists working in the field can waste time and energy searching for information on ecosystems, so it made sense to the Endangered Wildlife Trust to set up one centralised database for all ecological and spatial information.
The trust runs various environmental programmes and a large team of skilled field staff throughout southern Africa.
Brenda Daly, manager of its information technology for conservation programme, says work on the knowledge management system started in 2008.
The aim is to record and share ecological data in order to strengthen decision-making both within the EWT and other conservation organisations.
“The collation of data and monitoring of trends in populations assists in the management of key threatened species, as well as identifying strategic conservation needs and risks,” Daly says.
The EWT’s work focuses on identifying factors threatening biodiversity and developing mitigating measures to reduce them.
It has a broad spectrum of partnerships and networks, and the knowledge management system is one of the innovations it has introduced to promote sustainable livelihoods for both people and wildlife.