:User:TriebelD/sandbox

The ITCER facility is located in the Uradi village, Ng’iya, Siaya County, 60 km from Kisumu at Lake Victoria. The area is part of western Kenya western Kenya (East Africa) and categorised as belonging to Sub-Saharan Africa. The equatorial region has a typical tropical climate and vegetation. Kenya is a mega biodiverse country with over 35,000 species of flora and fauna.{{cite web | url=https://ke.chm-cbd.net/biodiversity | title=Kenya Biodiversity National Clearing House Mechanism - Homepage}}, but faces a lot of environmental issues.

The infrastructure of the facility is established as an answer to the sozio-economical needs of the region for sustainable environmental projects. Subjects are biodiversity and ecosystem monitoring, soil and water conservation, plant pathology, IT developments and data management in relation to the requirements of the local human population. Long-term monitoring initiatives and projects related to biodiversity, nature conservation and citizen science will be encouraged and supported by ITCER expertise. ITCER supported studies are carried out in collaboration with universities inside and outside of Kenya as well as directly with research and nature conservation institutions.{{cite web | url=https://itcer.org/ | title=ITCER - International Training Centre for Environmental Research - Homepage}} Ongoing projects deal with topics such as microplastic in western Kenya, grasslands ecology and restoration, fungal pathogens in terrestrial ecosystems and ethnobiology in Africa.Gkoutselis, G., Rohrbach, S., Harjes, J., Obst, M., Brachmann, A., Horn, M.A., Rambold, G. 2021. Microplastics accumulate fungal pathogens in terrestrial ecosystems. Sci Rep. 2021 Jul 15;11(1):13214. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92405-7.Gkoutselis, G., Rohrbach, S., Harjes, J. et al. 2024. Plastiphily is linked to generic virulence traits of important human pathogenic fungi. Commun Earth Environ 5, 51 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-01127-3.Kinge, T., Jefwa, J., Houdanon, R., Kamalebo, H., Abdel-Azeem, A., Gryzenhout, M., Triebel, D., Weibulat, T., Rambold, G. 2023. Management and publication of scientific data on traditional mycological and lichenological knowledge in Africa. – The Lichenologist, 55(5): 169–179. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0024282923000294. A collaboration with the international network Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF){{cite web | url=https://www.gbif.org/| title=Global Biodiversity Information Facility - Free and open access to biodiversity data}} for free and open access of data and with the German National Infrastructure for Research Data (NFDI4Biodiversity{{cite web | url=https://www.nfdi4biodiversity.org/en| title=NFDI4Biodiversity - A consortium under the umbrella of the German National Research Data Infrastructure}}) for concepts on data management is on the way.Weibulat, T. M., Triebel, D. 2024. Continuation of partnership Germany-Kenya with two workshops in 2023. GBIF Europe and Central Asia Nodes meeting 2024 (GBIF ECA 2024), Zagreb, Croatia. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12082639.Kinge, T., Jefwa, J., Houdanon, R., Kamalebo, H., Abdel-Azeem, A., Gryzenhout, M., Triebel, D., Weibulat, T., Rambold, G. 2023. Management and publication of scientific data on traditional mycological and lichenological knowledge in Africa. – The Lichenologist, 55(5): 169–179. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0024282923000294 ITCER works as a training and education unit with invited experts and stakeholders. Between 2022 and 2024 more than 20 events (mainly seminars, workshops, and field trips) were organised.{{cite web | url=https://itcer.org/events/list# | title=ITCER - International Training Centre for Environmental Research - Events}} A number of software and training materials for education purposes was realised{{cite web | url=https://itcer.org/training-materials | title=ITCER - International Training Centre for Environmental Research - Training Materials}}

ITCER was established in 2016 as a result of the activities of some academic members of the University of Bayreuth{{cite web | url=https://www.uni-bayreuth.de/en | title=University of Bayreuth - Homepage}}, including botanist Erwin Beck{{cite web | url=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Beck_(Botaniker) | title=Erwin Beck - DE Wikipedia}} and mycologist Gerhard Rambold together with local stakeholders in Siaya and members of Maseno University and JOOUST University Bondo. Two NGOs were founded in 2016 and 2017, one in Germany and one under Kenyan law. Both are non-profit organisations in the tertiary education sector and have their own constitution and board of directors.{{cite web | url=https://itcer.org/itcer/contact | title=ITCER - International Training Centre for Environmental Research - Contact}} In the meanwhile there are more than 30 academic and non-academic members who support the goals of the NGO by personal and financial commitment. The ITCER facility is managed in cooperation with and accepted by the local communities and interest groups in Siaya County and surrounding areas.

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