From the 14th to the 17th of August 2006 the 12th African Amphibian Working Group Meeting was held at Abomey, Bénin, West Africa. Afterwards from the 19th to the 22nd of August 2006 the Pendjari Amphibian Workshop took place in Batia, Bénin, West Africa (programme available at bottom of page).

It was an extremely nice and fruitful meeting and workshop. We would like to use this opportunity again to thank all participants for the fantastic two weeks that we spent together in the conference room (including the bar) and in the savannah. We also wish to thank again those individuals and organisations who sponsored the meeting and the workshop, and therewith made possible the participation of many students from Africa.

The next AAWG meeting will be in 2008 in Tanzania. Kim Howell, Charles Msuya, and Wilirk Ngalason will be arranging this meeting that very probably will be in Arusha. Thank you very much for this offer!

We also have already a place for a meeting in 2010. Alan Channing offered having this meeting in Stellenbosch, South Africa (great opportunity to directly connect the AAWG meeting with the 2010 Soccer World Cup! Fantastic idea!).

Conference Proceedings

As part of the Benin meeting we (Mark-Oliver Rödel & Johannes Penner) are planning to edit a Mertensiella volume on African amphibians. In fact producing this volume was part of the deal with the German Herpetological Society to get funding for Bénin. This volume is open to everybody (not only to those persons who participated in Bénin). We are looking for all kind of papers dealing with African and Malagasy amphibians. These may deal with taxonomy, systematics, faunistic, biology, ecology, ethology, conservation, parasitology and so on. We only accept papers based on original data not already published elsewhere or reviews. In the later case, please contact us beforehand if the suggested topic is suitable, before starting to write. A preliminary title for the Mertensiella volume so far simply is “African amphibians”, suggestions for a better title are welcome. Please feel free to forward this to other people!

The general instructions to prepare such a paper are those for Salamandra (see downloads below and as an example a paper available as download). We only accept English papers. In addition to the Salamandra instructions a Mertensiella paper has to have an extended German abstract. For those who do not speak German: no problem, in this case we can translate your extended English summary. All papers will be subject to a peer-review process. Please try to keep your paper(s) shorter than 30 manuscript pages (including figures and tables! exceptions are possible but must be justified) and stick to the format instructions! If there are too many inconsistencies with the general instructions, the paper will bounce back to you until these are fulfilled, prior to be sent to a reviewer. It is possible to print colour pictures without charging you! We even ask you to include nice pictures that illustrate the species (or the habitats, behaviours etc.) you are dealing with.

If you plan to submit a paper to this Mertensiella volume:

• pleasesend us (Mark-Oliver Rödel [Email] & Johannes Penner [Email]) as soon as possible an email confirming that you are planning to submit a paper, including the preliminary title and contents (key words!).
• please tell us if you agree to review 1-2 manuscripts from other persons.
• send us your manuscript (electronically!) latest until end of December 2006 (we are planning to publish this volume next year – 2007 -, the faster we have your contributions and maybe revisions, the sooner this volume can be printed).
• when submitting your paper please also provide names and addresses of two potential reviewers for your paper.
• when you review a paper, please send us your comments within four weeks.
• we would very much appreciate if people who’s native language is English would be willing to check manuscripts in this regard.

We hope that you will find it interesting to publish in a Mertensiella volume dedicated exclusively to African amphibians and we are much looking forward to your contributions!!!