12th Pan-African Ornithological Congress
South Africa, 7-12 September 2008

The scientific programme will run from Monday 8 September to Friday 12 September. The chair of the Scientific Programme Committee is Doug Harebottle (Doug.Harebottle@uct.ac.za), Animal Demography Unit, University of Cape Town, and any queries regarding the scientific programme should be directed to him.

The schedule for programme construction will be as follows:

Symposia: Up to four parallel sessions will be possible. Proposals for symposia, using the identical format that was in place at the International Ornithological Congress in Hamburg in 2006, will be accepted until 29 June.

NOTE: Symposia titles now avaibale to view. Click here. (Posted 8 November 2007).

The format will consist of five oral presentations in a two-hour time slot, and will need two co-convenors, who should ideally be from different countries. The co-convenors need to submit a proposal (click here to download form) for their symposium, containing a brief motivation, and the names of two keynote speakers in the symposium. The motivations will be considered by the Scientific Programme Committee. The main criteria for acceptance will be relevance to the conference theme Birds and People: interaction, utilisation and conservation, and relevance to African ornithology and/or current ornithological issues. The next step will be to advertise the accepted symposia on this website, and the co-convenors will be given the opportunity to select the three remaining presentations for their symposium from the offered submissions. The accepted symposia will be advertised in October 2007.

Contributions to symposia: The deadline for the submission of abstracts will be early in 2008. Authors will be expected to indicate for which symposium they are offering a paper. Papers not accepted by co-convenors of symposia as symposium contributions will automatically be considered for presentation as general oral presentations.

General oral presentations: The deadline for the submissions of abstracts for oral presentations which do not fit into a particular symposium is 31 March 2008. These will be considered by the Scientific Programme Committee, and those that are accepted will be arranged in groups. Papers not accepted as oral presentations will also be considered as poster contributions.

Round-table discussions: The deadline for the submissions of abstracts for round-table discussions (RTDs) is 31 March 2008. These should ideally be structured around a few major issues or series of questions. RTDs will be considered by the Scientific Programme Committee.

Poster contributions: The deadline for the submission of abstracts of posters is 31 March 2008.

Please bookmark this page in your web browser as updates will appear on a regular basis.