Recruit local partners for support and implementation
Club P.A.N. was created out of inspiration from Club Ebobo the nature clubs of the Wild Conservation Society. The Primate Conservation Group approached the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation because they were working in Côte d’Ivoire since 2000 and already had good connections to the “Cellule des Projets Environnementaux” (CPE). CPE is the key partner here, with direct connections to government ministries. They obtain the authorizations and implement Club P.A.N. since its start. Together with WCF and the Primate Conservation Group the CPE conduct the teacher training, plan the program around the school curriculum, conduct the sessions, evaluations, ‚Parents Days‘ and micro-projects.
Have good local and governmental connections of responsible local people. Through motivated local staff and personnel a project’s communication network is expanded and strengthened, which ultimately contributes to its success.
It is always good to have an additional volunteer supervising the project implementation and financial accounting, since local organizations may still need capacity building and training on computers and support in obtaining technical equipment such as cameras. Importantly, we have documented a significant increase in positive attitudes towards chimpanzees and biodiversity conservation among children that participate in the Club P.A.N programme (Borchers et al. 2013). This positive difference, although not directly comparable to chimpanzee abundance, does motivate continued participation, by teachers, students and villagers, in Club P.A.N activities and thus increases public sensitization for chimpanzee conservation. Recent research from our group also supports that education does positively impact species populations and biodiversity conservation (Junker et al. 2015).