The Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Forestry Research and Training (UWIFoRT), in collaboration with Bhutan Food and Drug Authority (BFDA) is conducting a 5-day (5-9 th May 2025) Training Workshop on Ecological Niche Modeling (ENM) for invasive species, the Giant African Land Snail (GALS). This training workshop is being conducted under the project “Building Adaptive Capacity through Innovative Management of Pests/Disease and Invasive Alien Species (IAS) in Bhutan to Enhance Sustainable Agro-Biodiversity and Livelihoods.”

A total of 15 Participants include officials from existing GALS prevalent areas, working under the BFDA, Technical Working Group from BFDA, Department of Environment and Climate Change (DoECC), and Department of Forests and Park Services (DoFPS).

The objectives of the training are:

i) Acquisition of input data collected from the field, as well as from global and national databases/portals

ii) Acquisition and processing of environmental data from online and other sources

iii) Conduct of Ecological Niche Modelling and generation of  climate models under different climate scenarios

iv) Interpretation of the model output and development of risk maps.

This training will provide hands-on exercises on ArcGIS, R and MaxEnt to generate a model that will enable mapping risk areas of GALS under current and different future climate scenarios. The result is expected to assist decision makers in adopting measures for early detection, prevention, and control of GALS

outbreak.

The training workshop is being funded by the Adaptation Fund through the Bhutan Trust Fund for Environmental Conservation.