Sponsored by Wetlands International Africa through its Sustainable Livelihood & Biodiversity Project (SLBP) in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, three (3) students, left on Monday, 3rd, August 2015 for a month training session at the Centre for advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy (CASELAP), University of Nairobi, Kenya.. The training will focus on economic evaluation of ecosystems and biodiversity.
Harry Ayebapreye Gijo, a lecturer at the Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island in Bayelsa State, Dennis .E . Arhawarien. , from Delta State University, Abraka and Divine Chikezie Nnamdi , a student of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Rivers State are the recipients of the scholarships offered by Wetlands International Africa. They are sponsored by the Sustainable Livelihood & Biodiversity Project (SLBP), an initiative of Shell International/Wetlands International, Partnership for wetlands conservation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. They left Port Harcourt on Monday 3rd August, 2015 for Nairobi, Kenya, where they will be trained on the economic evaluation of ecosystems and biodiversity during the Summer training School.
At a meeting with the beneficiaries on Saturday, 1st August, 2015 prior to their departure , the Manager, Wetlands International Project Office, Michael Uwagbae, laid emphasis on the importance of the training programme and while advising the students, stated the following “While in Kenya , you are the ambassadors of Wetlands International Africa and also of Nigeria. You are going for a training session, do your best work. Work as a team. When you will come back home, you will present a collective report to us and each of you will also present individual reports to your different universities” he asserted.
On behalf of the group, the Team Leader, Mr. Harry Ayebapreye Gijo, said that they were privileged to be given this opportunity to be trained in Nairobi, Kenya on environmental economics and further added that “This training will equip us to be competent environmental biologists. This training will enable us also to be knowledgeable in environment economics and impact positively on lives of Nigerians’’. The awardees were later conducted through a series of precautionary/safety measures, guidelines and expectation from the training by the Project Manager.