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IPS Award |
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CERCOPAN Educator Jerry Akparawa Wins International Award
Jerry Akparawa is the Senior Education Officer at
CERCOPAN, and leads our education programmes. These innovative
programmes have made CERCOPAN one of the most influential sanctuaries in
Africa. We are very very proud to announce that Jerry has won the
2007 Charles Southwick Conservation Education Commitment Award from the
International Primatological Society (IPS).
Akparawa was the unanimous choice of the IPS Education Committee, which
awarded $750 to Akparawa and $250 to an education program of his
choosing. “The outstanding education programs developed at the
CERCOPAN sanctuary are a testament to the outstanding dedication of
Akparawa to his community and to the primates he works to conserve each
and every day,” said the IPS release.
A graduate of the Environmental Education program at the University of
Calabar in Nigeria, Akparawa joined CERCOPAN in 1996--and soon learned
that leading CERCOPAN's education programme is a daunting task in a
country that has levelled over 92 percent of its original forest. Jerry
and his assistant Martina, make daily presentations to CERCOPAN's 32,000
annual visitors – more than half of whom are first-time arrivals -- and
also manages the sanctuary’s Conservation Club for school children.
Jerry also makes more than 50 presentations annually to elementary and
secondary schools in the Calabar urban area, and frequently speaks on
conservation at church services. |
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Each year, Jerry and his team raise the funds to plan and stage an
Environmental Rally as part of World Environment Day
celebrations. Last year, over 3,000 schoolchildren took part in the
festival, which included a parade, floats, banners, and entertainment.
The CERCOPAN education team also stage HIV/AIDS workshops throughout
Calabar and the Iko Esai forest region, and has used various methods to
impress upon villagers the need to conserve Nigeria’s biodiversity, even
as they protect their own health.
Akparawa recently trained assistants to expand the scope of his work in
Calabar and Iko Esai, but he’s still hard to work improving himself.
CERCOPAN has sponsored Jerry to take a correspondence course in Advanced
Primate Conservation from Compass Education. He also through in house
training now helps to teaching university attachment courses at
CERCOPAN’s Rhoko Research and Education Centre in the Iko Esai forest.
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A quote from Pan African
Sanctuary Alliance
“PASA is extremely proud of the work done by Jerry Akparawa and all
of the education officers at our member sanctuaries,” said PASA
executive director Doug Cress. “PASA places tremendous emphasis on the
ability of education to impact conservation, and we believe educators
like Jerry are playing a vital role.” |
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