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Central African project: The Tri National de la Sangha Landscape
In the heart of the Congo Basin a more than 3 million ha forest landscape
extends over Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR) and Congo-Brazzaville
called Tri-National de la Sangha (TNS). It is the home of many charismatic large
mammals like forest elephant, lowland forest gorilla, chimpanzee and bongo. Its
treasure of biodiversity stimulated WWF and WCS to purchase the gazettement of 4
national parks now comprising 21% of the landscape. However, the majority of the
landscape is destined to timber extraction: 71% of the landscape consists of
logging concessions buffering the National Parks. Overlapping the logging
concession’s surface, safari hunting companies bring their clients to hunt this
extraordinary fauna at very high prices.
Contrasting with this natural richness is the human poverty: where the average Cameroonian income per capita per year is about US$ 1,010 (World Bank, 2006 1) the average Cameroonian income in the South-East (TNS-landscape) is only US$ 3602 per capita (CIFOR, 2006). Almost 8 in 10 people in the TNS live on less then US$1 per day 3 (CIFOR, 2006). Hunting is important for these people for subsistence and income: 65% of the households in the TNS are involved in hunting which makes up 5 to 20% of their income (CEFAID, 2005; CIFOR, 2006).
Please click here to download the presentation on "Visioning tools to alleviate poverty in conservation landscape"
The challenge
In this situation of high poverty levels and high natural values, landscape level projects are faced with a huge challenge: achieving the best outcomes for both conservation and development. This challenge is especially significant once we understand how conservation and development outcomes are inter-related: the majority of the households are involved in hunting, and bushmeat makes up a substantial proportion of their total income in addition to its importance for subsistence (a high nutrient source). There are also conflicts between people and wildlife: many animal species invade crops and are considered as pests by the local population (e.g., elephants and gorillas). The challenge to the ICDP worker comes from having the same mammal species as a prized bushmeat, a threat to local people’s agricultural activities and at the same time being key species for conservation, making the implementation of an ICDP in such a landscape a very difficult task.
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1 Calculated using the Atlas Method for the year 2005 by World Bank
2 Result of 50 household surveys in 3 villages in the Cameroonian part of the TNS landscape, May 2006
3 Result of 100 household surveys in 6 villages in the TNS landscape in Cameroon and Central African Republic