From May 28^th to June 1^st, a training course in planning and finances for all Conservation Areas in the Country was organized by BIOFUND in partnership with the National Administration of Conservation Areas.

This training builds on BIOFUND’s administrative and financial procedures manual as a way of equipping the Areas with technical capacity to implement projects funded by the Foundation.

The training took place in Maputo City and was attended by 25 participants from all the different Conservation Areas of Mozambique, represented by finance, planning and procurement technicians.

This was the second training session conducted by BIOFUND with a focus on administrative and financial procedures. It was the first in 2016, followed by training in project preparation conducted in 2017 with the managers of the Conservation Areas.

The training was designed to include the different aspects of results-oriented planning, procurement and budget management, from practical exercises and adapted to the reality of the Areas, taught by the Academy of Management and Public Finance.

Fenias Nhari, accountant at Vilankulos Bravio Sanctuary in the Total Protection Zone of Cabo de São Sebastião, participant of this training for the second time, said that it was a very useful recycling and a great opportunity to remedy the difficulties that he has faced during the financial execution, and leaves the training with a new vision and equipped with tools to improve their daily work.

Armindo Matavel, of Limpopo National Park, who attended the training for the first time, believes that the training served to iron out the doubts of day-to-day planning issues, organization and also the monthly accountability report that has been submitted to BIOFUND.

These training and capacity building for the Conservation Areas are part of the second objective of the BIOFUND Strategic Plan and are intended to be an annual activity, in order to allow the recycling of technicians.