Study focuses on management plan for Varirata Park

 A BASELINE study to develop a management plan for the Varirata National Park has been in  progress since June last year.

Ted Mamu, technical coordinator with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on the biodiversity conservation project, said a detailed biodiversity and socioeconomic study of the park would be carried out later. 

“But currently, we are doing some baseline studies at the park to collect data for developing a management plan for the park,” Mamu said.

“We have installed 20 cameras around the park and they are running and collecting data day and night since June last year.”

Mamu said 10 video cameras and 10 stillcameras were installed side by side. 

The camera is running day and night recording while the still camera takes shots of animal species that come across by detecting their body temperature. 

“We only change the battery and the memory card after every month and they are continuing to record and capture what is happening at the park, including visitors visiting the park as well.”

Mamu said the data would help to see how many people visited 

the park, and which group of 

people – expatriates, nationals and students.

“As well, the data will provide us with the information on the different species of animals living in the park or visiting the park and also the time these animals visited and at which locations,” Mamu said.

“So far, it has been amazing with the data we collected, especially the different animal species that are living in the park.”