Talatona- The Angolan authorities are working on the creation of the Southern African Science and Services Centre for Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainable Soil Management (SASSCAL), which will deal with the areas of Agriculture, Food Security and Soil Management, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the body, Gabriel Luís Miguel, said on Monday in Luanda.
The PCA, who was speaking at the opening of the Worshop on the dissemination of the Postgraduate Programme in Integrated Management of Water Resources, without giving any dates, said that, at the moment, work on completing the centre that will be associated with the Postgraduate School is already well advanced.
He said that countries such as Zambia, Botswana and South Africa will also be given Centres of Excellence related to the study of forests and health, as part of SASSCAL's internationalisation work and in processes that allow more countries to express an interest in being part of the project.
According to the manager, with regard to biodiversity observatories, in 2013 Angola became part of the Southern African Biodiversity Observatory network, with the installation of six Observatories, in the Iona National Park (Espinheira - Namibe), Cameia (Moxico), Bicuar (Huíla), Cusseque (Bié), Candelela (Cuando-Cubango) and Tundavala (Huíla), which are representative of the regions' ecosystems.
He went on to say that the project was entirely funded by the German Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, which guaranteed the purchase of eight pieces of equipment, training and all the expenses related to the activities in Angola.
He explained that at the moment there is an Angolan team prepared for monitoring, made up of four young researchers with doctorates, bachelor's and master's degrees, all trained under SASSCAL.
‘Our first partner in the project, the team is collaborating with the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Agostinho Neto - Department of Biology, with the Higher Polytechnic Institute of Tundavala (Climate and Hydrology) and with international institutions such as the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa and the Universities of Coimbra and Porto in Portugal, which support our scientific and technical training in different ways.
These actions have resulted in more than 20 publications from almost a decade of work at the Angola Observatories,’ he said.
Angola's benefits in a total of seven (7) projects related to the areas of Food Security (4), Water Security (1), scientific support infrastructures (1), medicinal plant research (1), in which Angolan institutions participate, in partnership with other institutions from Germany and South Africa, was also mentioned by the PCA.
Gabriel Luís mentions the José Eduardo dos Santos, Kimpa Vita and Agostinho Neto Universities, the Higher Polytechnic Institute of Tundavala and the Association for the Conservation of the Environment and Integrated Rural Development ‘ACADIR’ as participants in these projects, whose total amount of funding is six hundred and seventy-eight thousand one hundred and thirty euros and fifty-four cents (678,130.54).
According to the president, SASSCAL has become one of the largest scientific research and development networks in southern Africa, involving eighty (80) organisations.
Africa, involving eighty (80) scientific research and development institutions, providing support for the training of around two hundred (200) young scientists and also establishing a network of one hundred and fifty-six (156) automatic meteorological stations.
Within this set of structures, he says that SASSCAL also has fifty-four (54) biodiversity observatories, as well as an open data sharing service centre, which is located at the Regional Secretariat in Windhoek - Republic of Namibia.
SASSCAL - Southern African Science and Services Centre for Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainable Land Management.MAG/DAN/DOJ
