Epupa village in the Kunene Region will host the inaugural Skeleton Coast-IONA (SCIONA) trans-frontier park Technology for Conservation Knowledge Fair between Tuesday and Thursday. IONA is the largest National Park in Angola and is situated in the south-western corner of Namibia. The fair will be held under the European Union (EU)-funded SCIONA project, titled ‘Co-designing Conservation Technologies for Iona-Skeleton Coast Trans-Frontier Conservation Area’. In an interview with NAMPA on Wednesday, SCIONA Fair primary organiser and researcher, Chris Muashekele, said the objective of the fair is to bring together community members, researchers, park managers, government departments and non-governmental organisations, in a common space to share knowledge on how to realise sustainable ecosystem management, while applying scientific and traditional knowledge for utilisation, where applicable. Muashekele said for the past four years, SCIONA has been working with four conservancies namely Orupembe, Marine Fluss, Okangwati and Epupa, which will also form part of the event along with other organisations and researchers from the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). “Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) measures and regulations, the knowledge fair will accommodate no more than 90 people,” he said. He also stated that the fair will allow for the showcasing of research to communities, which will in turn give feedback from an indigenous knowledge perspective. The concept, according to a media statement, was inspired by the eBario Knowledge Fair, which is a bi-annual event held in the rainforest of Borneo, in South East Asia. “Thus far, Namibia has successfully implemented community-based natural resource conservation with established methods of joint data collection. Indigenous knowledge is critical for biodiversity conservation and the exchange of this knowledge is essential to improve ecosystem management. An interdisciplinary research team from NUST and affiliated scientists have collaborated with Namibian and Angolan conservancies for this initiative,” the statement reads. The fair will have activities such as 'walk shops', which are community-led river and ethnobotanical walks; workshops and training in skills and competencies related to natural resource conservation and academic presentations.