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President of l’Association du Calao asbl, Luxembourg
Calao is a Luxembourg based association led by Sophie Decelle and dedicated to educating about and to protecting biodiversity through development projects in Eastern and Western African communities.
Calao initiated its activity with a project in the Northern region of Kenya, with the Samburu community where it built a school for 60 children (3-6 years old) which was later taken over by the Kenyan government.
Since 2011, Calao has been working to rehabilitate the Abidjan zoo. Due to political unrest the Ivory Coast had been going through since 1999, the only zoo in the country suffered from neglect and lack of investments. A quarter of the animals had died. The zoo is clearly a sensitive topic of conservation and plays an important role to educate the local community about wildlife conservation. After three years of continuous activity, the situation has greatly improved and it is clear that the zoo can be viable.
A new project started in 2015 aims to protect the exceptional biodiversity of Cape Verde from pollution as well as to educate the local communities. Cape Verde beaches are the third largest hatching area for the Loggerhead Turtle. Sea turtles pay a heavy tribute due to the pollution of the beaches by the fishing industry, tourism and the climate change issues. The solutions suggested by Calao are to set up a regular collection system of waste on the Island of Sal, to involve people living in slums with community work, providing a source of income and to build a waste treatment platform.
