“Connect People and Nature as One”
Djibouti Nature is a committed, visionary and pioneer nature protection organization in Djibouti that focuses to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources.
Mission
Association Djibouti Nature aims to contribute to national nature conservation efforts as a whole. To do this, it works with communities by advocating the implementation of sustainable development programs and projects, environmental education and awareness as well as scientific research on natural diversity with academia to improve basic knowledge about nature in the country in order to better protect it.
Vision
The Djibouti Nature association wants Djibouti to be a country where people and nature live in harmony. The population will be engaged in nature conservation with DNA. Sites important to nature will be restored, expanded and preserved forever. The number and distribution of species will be maintained and increased, and people will have sustainable livelihoods.
Internal vision
The Djibouti Nature Association will be a strong, growing and well-funded organization, respected as the voice of nature in the country, in the Horn of Africa region and indeed all of Africa for its solid scientific researches, its environmental education and awareness, its conservation achievements, its loyal members, its community involvement and its good governance.
Values
The Djibouti Nature Association has 5 Values to guide its work:
- Transparency
- Open-mindedness at work and respect for others
- Faithful and honest in the partnership
- Engaged Board of Directors
- Hard-working members
The Association Djibouti Nature –Djibouti Nature (formerly known as Wildlife Protection Organization -WPO) is an independent, membership-based and not-for-profit grassroots organization, legally established in Djibouti. Djibouti Nature was set up in 1999 and thus the most and oldest experienced civil society organization working on nature conservation in the country.
It has an important but short history of nature conservation mainly from birds’ species and natural habitats perspective. Besides, it has been working tirelessly with local communities, private sectors and government bodies for many years to raise awareness for both Djibouti’s extraordinary wildlife and precious habitats protection for the benefit of present and future generations.
Djibouti Nature is registered under the provisions of Act of July 1st, 1901, relating to the contract of association in Djibouti and certificate has been delivered (certificate number 63/DAGR/18/03/2001) by the Ministry of Interior and Decentralisation.
Djibouti Nature is a “young” organization that is striving to conservation of nature in Djibouti. It built its notoriety inside and outside of Djibouti as the leading authority on the avifauna of the country and constantly concentrates its works on the conservation of the Globally Threatened Species such as the Critically Endangered Djibouti Francolin “Francolinus ochropectus”, the Vulnerable Bankoualé palm “Livistona carinensis” and Key Biodiversity Sites such as Forêt du Day Ecosystem, Assamo-Guestir –Ali Addé triangle Ecosystem, Hanlé-Goba’ad- Lake Abhé Ecosystem, Bab el Mandeb Straits Ecosystem (IBA), etc….
The Association represents the bird conservation of Djibouti nationally and across the world and has access to the many resources that the Partnership provides to its members, including scientific support and institutional development.
It is very much sparing no efforts in environmental education and larger public awareness raising promotional materials that focus on species, sites, habitats and site-adjacent communities. To that end, the Djibouti Nature has been successful in publishing and disseminating more than 5000 pedagogic booklets on Djibouti Birds to schools.
As the Association understands the importance of environmental awareness and love of nature amongst the younger generations who are destined to be the future caretakers of Djibouti’s natural inheritances and it works closely with local communities, individuals, schools, academia, government and non-government conservation bodies and private sectors through the implementation of the following specific objectives: Trustful and be accountable to local communities, policy makers, partners, donors and the general public
Association de la Pêche, du Tourisme et de l’Environnement de la Plage d’Arta – Arta
Association pour le Développement et la Protection de l’Environnement du Day – Tadjoura
Association Entre-Aide d’Arta – Arta
The Association is governed by the highest decision-making body, the Annual General Meeting (AGM), which elects a Board of Directors from among the members responsible for overseeing the implementation of the organization’s programs.
The Board of Directors, which sits on a voluntary basis, transparently and with equal opportunities for all, recruits secretarial staff headed by the Executive Director to manage the day-to-day activities of the organization.
The Executive Director is a non-voting member and Secretary of the Board of Directors. The association’s accounts are audited annually by an approved independent Djibouti audit firm.
Association Djibouti Nature (ADN) undertakes work in the following issues to achieve its strategic objectives:
- Capacity Development to increase Association Djibouti Nature’s human resource capacity and capability; to develop its organisational structure; and to achieve a high level of financial transparency.
- Environmental Education & awareness raising to increase the number of children, young people and adults who understand the threats to the wildlife of Djibouti and are motivated to take action to help.
- Migratory species to reduce the threats to migrate bird species in Djibouti by participating in international projects and conducting research.
- Endangered Species to reduce the threats to endangered species in Djibouti through research, conservation action and raising awareness.
- Invasive species to reduce the threats to native species, through research and conservation action.
- Protecting sites, including Forests to increase protection for important sites for nature in Djibouti.
- Tourism to improve protection of threatened species and sites in Djibouti by encouraging responsible eco-tourism.
- Marine to conserve and improve the marine environment off Djibouti through research and advocacy.
- Hazardous materials to reduce the risks to marine and terrestrial species from deliberate or accidental poisoning. This objective will be met through other areas of ADN’s work.
- Climate Change to consider the likely effects of climate change on important sites and species and plan how best to mitigate and/or adapt for the impacts.
NB:Association Djibouti Nature will prioritize the issues and strategic objectives for actions as guided by resources and time constraints.
The strengths of Djibouti Nature include among others:
- Working with an extensive of community based and grassroots organisations.
- Building relationships with all stakeholders in nature conservation and in local sustainability of natural resources.
- Being trustful and responsible image within local communities, government bodies, partners, donors and general public field.
- Accountable, trustful and transparent in financial management.
- Experienced in project development, implementation and reporting.
- Good model and support the emergence of similar sister organizations in nature conservation field in Djibouti.
- Being an effective resource centre for environmental education, ornithological and nature diversity studies in Djibouti.