Among the problems encountered in managing forest resources in Central Africa there is a gap of practical skills and scientific knowledge. Professional staff with required skills and knowledge to implement sustainable management of forest ecosystems is not always available. There is a traditional lack of engineers in forestry administration, wood engineering or NGOs dedicated to forestry and environmental sectors. A recent analysis suggests that the future demand in skilled personnel in the field of natural resource management, including natural resource conservation, cannot be fully satisfied by the degree programs currently offered in Central Africa.

It advocates that ad-hoc training and further education programs, specifically designed for certain groups, should be organized in the future to cover those needs. In other words, the development of short courses has to be developed as soon as possible in order to cover present and future demands in the sector. Indeed, this process represents a significant opportunity for specialized training institutions to be involved in the development of the local forestry and environmental sector of the region. As these institutions are already used to conducting trainings on occasion, they have an important role to play in systematically developing continuing education programs catering the sector’s demand.

As part of the program “Establishment and capacity building for sustainable exploitation of forest resources in the Cong Basin”, German Development Cooperation (GIZ) has supported the “Network of Institutions for further Education in Forestry and Environmental Sectors in Central Africa” (RIFFEAC) for more than three years. The network unites technical training and academic education institutions in the field of natural resources management and forestry from the COMIFAC region. In 2012, GIZ support concerns inter alia the development of further education programs and training courses in.

In this regard, RIFFEAC and the Kitabi College of Conservation and Environmental Management (KCCEM) in Rwanda, in collaboration with GIZ, organized a workshop on the "Development of Training Modules" that took place at Hotel Palisse in Kigali from July 9^th to 13^th 2012. A group of 18 representatives from RIFFEAC member institutions in Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, RCA, DRC, Rwanda and Chad participated in the workshop. In their institutions, participants are involved in the preparation of training courses and / or in the development of external relations and networking.

During the workshop in Kigali, the participants were trained in the conceptual development, organization and implementation of short courses for further education. More specifically, the workshop focused on the concept of professional short courses in general, organizational aspects (e.g. budget, logistics, marketing, etc.) and on various content related topics (e.g. target group, learning objectives, pedagogical aspects etc.).

Participants had the opportunity to benefit from the host institution’s exceptional experience in delivering training courses, especially in the field of natural resource conservation, in Rwanda. A site visit to KCCEM was organized on 13^th of July.

Participants returned to their countries with a clear idea of how to design, organize and implement training courses and will play a central role for the development of continuing education in their institutions.

Forthcoming is a workshop in Garoua (Cameroon) in September/October 2012 that will RIFFEAC’ member institutions the opportunity to present and evaluate new short course proposals developed after the Kigali workshop.

For further information, please contact: the coordinator of RIFFEAC (M. Soulémane I. SAMBO, si_sambo@yahoo.fr Kitabi College of Conservation & Environmental Management (KCCEM) C/O Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Tourism & Conservation (Richard NASASIRA, Tel: +250 – 78.84.47.739, rnasasira_kagoboka@yahoo.com) ou GIZ (Heiko HEIDEMANN, heiko.heidemann@giz.de).