Beier and his wife attend the funeral of the late Asantehene Opuku Ware in April 2000

Paul Beier, a 1999-2000 participant in the African Regional Research Program, took a year-long sabbatical from Northern Arizona University's School of Forestry to research tropical bird diversity in the major forest zones of Ghana. The patches of forest where the scholar conducted his research are referred to as forest fragments, important for wildlife ecologists because as the world's forests continue to disappear, they become refuges for tropical biodiversity. His Fulbright research project, the first of its kind conducted in West Africa, improves the world's knowledge of bird diversity in the major forest zones of Ghana, links wildlife survival with specific styles of forest management and identifies which bird species are most sensitive to fragmentation. Beier anticipates that "such data would have immediate application to management and would form a springboard for future research projects." This kind of research may help determine which type of forest patch is most valuable for conservation purposes and which simple management actions might better protect a forest fragment's endangered plant and animal populations.

A Ghanaian girl carries water

Beier worked with colleagues at the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) and at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (UST) in Kumasi to observe and count the tropical bird population in 40 forest patches. He was met with gracious hospitality on the part of his host country colleagues. Although he worked mostly with colleagues from FORIG on this project, while in Ghana he started a second project, collaborating with UST faculty, Nature Conservation Research Centre (a Ghanaian NGO), and EarthWatch International to assist local communities in their effort to establish a community-based hippopotamus sanctuary. Beier's many contributions to his host institutions include textbooks, journals, recordings of tropical birds and the training required to identify birds by song.

With regard to the challenges of living and working in the third world, he explains, "Perhaps the most valuable lesson is that people who seem to be 'desperately surviving' (and who are indeed desperate in many respects) have lives filled with a rich variety of grand plans and trivial pursuits, hold religious and aesthetic values that far transcend the struggle to survive and in a few minutes acquaintance can be enjoying a good belly laugh" with a stranger. Despite weekly power outages and a phone system that he calls laughable, Beier found the Fulbright experience in Ghana extremely rich and states that he "would not trade it for anything."

The reception Beier received each time he approached a Ghanaian elementary school!

In addition to the personal growth that comes from adapting to a new environment and culture, Beier adds that, "as an ecologist and conservation biologist, I have benefited greatly from the opportunity to learn about a completely different ecosystem, and to experience the challenges of conserving tropical forests (which harbor most of the worlds biological diversity). No amount of reading can substitute for such firsthand experience."