On Saturday 23 March 2024, the Director of ERAIFT, Professor Baudouin Michel, attended the graduation ceremony of the 2023 cohort of the Master in Management Sciences organized in Kinshasa by HEC Liège and the “Université Protestante du Congo (UPC)” at the “Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles International” (WBI). Eight graduates were honored. This ceremony marks the end of a rigorous academic process and the beginning of a new step in the professional careers of these new graduates.

ERAIFT thanks the Université de Liège, the UPC and the WBI for their invitation and congratulates the Eight new graduates.

To commemorate International Women's Day, Baudouin Michel, the Director of ERAIFT, warmly received the ten women students from the 5th cohort of ERAIFT, representing five African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Senegal, Gabon, and Benin, for a lunch of enriching exchanges. The Director attentively listened to the diverse perspectives of the students regarding their experiences at ERAIFT, their academic journeys, and their specific professional aspirations.

Additionally, the Director reminded ERAIFT's commitment to positive discrimination in favor of women, a practice upheld by ERAIFT as a UNESCO Category 2 Centre, in the recruitment of both students and doctoral candidates.

Lastly, the Director brought attention to the existence of the Gender Working Group, which will provide a report to the ERAIFT Board of Directors. He encouraged the students to engage in discussions on this matter with the President of the 5th graduating class, who is a member of the group.

ERAIFT expresses its gratitude to UNESCO for its support over the past 25 years and acknowledges the European Union for its financial assistance.

To commemorate International Women's Day, Baudouin Michel, the Director of ERAIFT, warmly received the ten women students from the 5th cohort of ERAIFT, representing five African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Senegal, Gabon, and Benin, for a lunch of enriching exchanges. The Director attentively listened to the diverse perspectives of the students regarding their experiences at ERAIFT, their academic journeys, and their specific professional aspirations.

Additionally, the Director reminded ERAIFT's commitment to positive discrimination in favor of women, a practice upheld by ERAIFT as a UNESCO Category 2 Centre, in the recruitment of both students and doctoral candidates.

Lastly, the Director brought attention to the existence of the Gender Working Group, which will provide a report to the ERAIFT Board of Directors. He encouraged the students to engage in discussions on this matter with the President of the 5th graduating class, who is a member of the group.

ERAIFT expresses its gratitude to UNESCO for its support over the past 25 years and acknowledges the European Union for its financial assistance.

The Friday, February 23rd , at 1:30 PM, by the invitation of Professor Jean-Louis Doucet, in Auditorium G at Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech Campus of the University of Liège, the Director of ERAIFT, Special Envoy of the African Parks Network for Francophone Africa, delivered a conference entitled “Protected Areas Management Models: Public-Private Partenrship (PPPs)

Approximately forty Master’s student in Forest and Natural Area Management attended the lecture and posed numerous questions. The speaker, an honorary professor at Gembloux Agro Bio-Tech, emphasized the two essential principles that characterize his alma mater: on-the-ground truth and solidarity.

ERAIFT expresses gratitude to Professor Jean-Louis Doucet and Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech for this invitation and fruitful exchanges.

A networking event took place in the early evening of February 22 at the Pullman Hotel in Kinshasa. The event was part of a series of media networking events organized by JT Diplomatic in the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere in the world.

These are high-end meetings organized in Kinshasa, in exclusive venues, to connect international players active in the DRC to the various Congolese socio-economic ecosystems.

ERAIFT, represented by its fundraising director, took an active part in this networking evening. It was an opportunity to make the first public announcement of the next "English speaking days for Nature and Biodiversity @ERAIFT", to be held on April 17 and 18 at the school's Mont Amba site. The DFR also informed the public about the next ERAIFT online course on value chains, at the beginning of March, and the roadmap to the end of the year.

This ERAIFT intervention is part of the roll-out of activities under the project to build the capacity of biodiversity practitioners, scientists and policy-makers for the sustainable management of protected areas and forest ecosystems in Africa. This large-scale initiative in the Congo Basin sub-region and West Africa is funded by the European Union and ERAIFT, a category 2 center under the auspices of UNESCO. The AGRINATURA EEIG and ERAIFT are jointly implementing this project.

ERAIFT would like to take this opportunity to thank the European Union, the JT Diplomatic team and all its partners for making these important interventions possible.