The department of Geography at UCC has been asked by the government of Mauritania in West Africa to help develop a geographical information system (GIS) for the Banc d'Arguin, the vast national park which is 50 per cent on shore and 50 per cent off shore along the country's Atlantic coast.
The sand banks that give the park its name extend 50 km from the shore and are home to a huge variety of resident and migrant bird populations, particularly waders whose numbers have been counted at 2.5 million, the largest concentration of water birds anywhere in the world.
Landward, the park is a largely unexplored archaeological goldmine, containing sites that date back to Neolithic times.
The GIS has been used successfully in Ireland to protect our national fishery from foreign trawlers and it is hoped it will become the instrument which provide a master plan for the Banc d'Arguin.
Mr Darius Bartlett of UCC was invited to join the Conseil Scientifique du Banc d'Arguin (CSBA) in the early 1990s.
The CSBA meets once a year to evaluate the ecological health of the park and advise the Mauritanian government.
Tourism, and industrial-scale foreign fishing fleets, including, Mr Bartlett says, the Irish super trawler, Atlantic Dawn, are now posing a threat to the indigenous economy of the area which depends on camel herding and fishing.
Mr Bartlett will train Mauritanian scientists in the use of GIS technology and if funding can be found, Mauritanian students will train and carry out research work at UCC.