HOUSTON / ATLANTA / MONROVIA
HOUSTON / ATLANTA / MONROVIA
Higher Education for Conservation (HECA), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is a $5Million, 5-year grant whose project title is the Center of Excellence for Forestry, Biodiversity, and Conservation Leadership, and Green Enterprise Development in Liberia. The Theme of HECA is “Working Together to Conserve Liberia's Forests for a Secure Green Future.”
The Higher Education for Conservation (HECA) was launched on October 21, 2022, to build the skills of Liberia's forestry and natural resource workforce to support the conservation and sustainable use of natural forest resources while advancing economic development, gender equality, youth empowerment, and social inclusion.
At its core is the establishment of a Center of Excellence for Forestry, Biodiversity, and Conservation (the FBC Center) co-located at the University of Liberia. The center, with the assistance of HECA subject matter experts, will facilitate green enterprise development and strengthen Liberian higher education institutions to offer improved forestry, biodiversity, and conservation (FBC) curricula and defined co-curricular activities that develop workforce soft skills.
The Fellow visit to the United States in May-June was structured as a one-week visit to the University of Georgia for both faculty and administrative fellows, followed by two weeks each at Tuskegee University and AAMU for the faculty fellows.
The Higher Education for Conservation (HECA) Chief of Party and Executive Director of the Center of Excellence for Forestry, Biodiversity, and Conservation (FBC Center), Dr. B.K. Robertson, recently returned from a visit to the University of Rwanda. The purpose of the visit was to establish a partnership with the University of Rwanda for a collaborative training experience for High Education for Conservation (HECA) fellows from the University of Liberia (UL) and the Forestry Training Institute (FTI). Rwanda and few other countries such as Uganda, Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria with advanced degrees and programs in forestry biodiversity and conservation are being considered to serve as third party countries for training of HECA fellows.
Honorable Cynthia L. Blandford, UCL Consultant Team Lead, had the opportunity to meet with Vernice Gutherie, Liberia’s Peace Corps Country Director while in Liberia in July 2024 to leverage ideas and resources in support of HECA.
Hon. Blandford was informed that Peace Corps is currently undergoing a rebranding campaign, however, Gutherie’s interest was in encouraging Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) students to consider the Peace Corp and recruiting Liberians in the Diaspora to sign-up and participate. A virtual meeting will be coordinated with various HBCU leadership in the near-term to explore collaboration opportunities. The FBC Center is seeking internship sites and will develop Terms of Reference to submit to the Peace Corps to help recruit and identify qualified individuals to help strengthen HECA’s work at various locations in Liberia.
Cynthia L. Blandford
President, University Consortium for Liberia (UCL)
+ 1 678-612-2192
cblandford@UCLiberia.com
Val Thompson
Publisher & CEO, International Focus (iF) Magazine
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val@IFMagazine.net
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