Vallée de Mai ranger completes Durrell international conservation course |25 July 2016

Terance Payet, a ranger at the Vallée de Mai, completed the Durrell Endangered Species Management Graduate Certificate (DESMAN) two months ago at the Durrell Institute in Jersey, UK.

This certificate has been designed for conservation practitioners and covers a wide range of skills to maximise their efficiency at managing or taking part in conservation projects around the world.

The three-month course, based at the Durrell Conservation Academy at the headquarters of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in Jersey, started in February 2016.

Terance described the course as an incredible opportunity and learned many new skills both theoretically and practically, including in management and leadership, communication and facilitation, GIS software, conservation education, data manipulation, use of social media in conservation, project proposal writing and presentation, as well as small mammal trapping, camera trapping, radio tracking, distance sampling and capture-mark-recapture methods.
Some components of the course were new subjects for Terance and some strengthened his knowledge but all of the coursework will be invaluable for his work with SIF.

Terance excelled not only on the course but won the competition for a small grant from Durrell as he was judged to have the best presentation skills. This grant will go towards his work on the Seychelles Black Parrot research programme at the Vallée de Mai.

This is the second time that an SIF staff member has won this grant. Vallée de Mai site manager Marc Jean-Baptiste completed the DESMAN course in 2012 and also secured the small grant for his research on chameleons.