Central Africa Unites to Protect Congo Basin
12/16/00
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY
by Forests.org
If the goal is to conserve forests, and all their constituent biodiversity and ecosystems, there is no substitute for protecting habitats through strictly enforced preserves. Certified, sustainable management of forests can maintain much in the way of natural ecological patterns and processes across large areas. But long-term ecological sustainability of these managed forests depends upon the presence of nearby strictly protected areas within the forested landscape. There is no substitute, in terms of biological conservation, to maintaining large blocks of strictly protected forest habitats. In any given still pristine forest landscape; it is only after large, strictly protected ecological core areas have been established, sufficient to serve as the basis for long-term and upscale ecological sustainability, that thoughts can turn to certified and sustainable management of buffer areas.
It is heartening that three Central African nations have agreed to share management of 28,000 square kilometers of forest using such an approach. The agreement between Cameroon, the Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic will create the Sangha Park, and coordinate actions against poaching and illegal logging in the Congo Basin. "The Congo Basin is second only in size to the forests of the Amazon and unique because of its diverse eco-systems and wildlife." The approach is very promising; linking protected zones in several National Parks to increase the size and connectivity of habitat under strict preservation, and also includes production forests and hunting zones that surround the parks in the management.
The forest conservation movement is striving to reconcile the demands of certified forestry and wilderness protection. My take is as follows. No new areas of the World's last great forest wildernesses - including but not limited to the Amazon, Guyana Shield, Central Africa, Indo-Malaysian realm (including island of New Guinea), Russia and Canada - should be open to any type of management unless 1) strictly preserved and enforced protected areas constitute the vast majority of the landscape. This ensures that sustainable management occurs within an intact ecological context. Placing certified logging within such a natural context is a prerequisite for rigorous ecological sustainability of natural forest landscapes. 2) Local peoples desire to manage their forests to meet their legitimate needs. 3) Any forest management must strive for ecological sustainability, and be certified by standards at least as rigorous as the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC).
These last major forest epicenters must be maintained as operable, large-scale global ecosystems; in order to continue driving the World's ecological patterns and processes. Failure to maintain these ecological systems would be a planetary catastrophe. g.b.
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
ITEM #1
Central Africa Unites to Protect Congo Basin
Environment News Service, Copyright 2000; http://ens.lycos.com/
December 8, 2000
YAOUNDE, Cameroon, December 8, 2000 (ENS) - The battle against poaching and illegal logging in the Congo Basin received a significant boost Thursday as three Central African nations agreed to share management of a 28,000 square kilometer stretch of forest.
The Congo Basin is second only in size to the forests of the Amazon and unique because of its diverse eco-systems and wildlife. But these forests are under threat. Four million hectares of African forests are destroyed each year due to growing human population, illegal logging, poaching and conversion of forest land to other uses.
The tri-national accord will create Sangha Park, an area of more than one million hectares.
The agreement between Cameroon, the Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic is the first of its kind in Central Africa. It will link protected zones of Lobeke national park in Cameroon, the Dzanga- Sangha in the Central African Republic, the Nouabale-Ndoki park in the Republic of Congo and the production forests and hunting zones that surround each of those parks.
The countries are now expected to harmonize their forestry laws and implement a common management system on anti-poaching measures, ecological monitoring and logging.
For the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), it marks the culmination of more than a decade of work.
"This is an extremely positive development," said Dr. Chris Elliott, WWF's Forests for Life Campaign Director. "It not only represents the first concrete example of sub-regional collaboration on the protection and sustainable management of forests, but is also the fruition of more than 15 years work on WWF's part."
"A more coherent approach towards logging and anti-poaching will go a long way to guaranteeing the future of these important forests and the wildlife that live within them."
The ministerial meeting included representatives from Chad, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. It gathered to agree on ways to implement the Yaound, Declaration, a 12-point resolution signed last year by the six Central African heads of state on the conservation and sustainable management of the forests of the Congo Basin.
The six countries agreed to a series of measures, including the creation of a trust fund to implement programs and a coordination and monitoring body to be based in Yaound,. The signatories have also agreed to protect a minimum of 10 percent of their forests.
"This is part of a biodiversity blueprint that WWF has also been pushing for," said Elliott. "Now that the Democratic Republic of Congo has declared its adherence to the principles of the Yaound, Declaration, we should see a substantial area of rainforests here come under protection."
Up to 50 percent of the rainforests in the Congo Basin lie in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Illegal logging is causing severe forest degradation and a huge diversity of wildlife, including forest elephants, chimpanzees and gorillas, are greatly hunted for their meat. Many other jungle inhabitants remain threatened and even undiscovered.
Scientists believe these forests could hold the key to future medical advances in the treatment of human ailments. The chimpanzee, for example, recently disclosed as the potential source of the HIV virus in humans and vital to medical research, is severely endangered because of logging and poaching.
Another ministerial meeting in March 2001 has been scheduled to implement decisions taken this week.
ITEM #2
Cameroon's conservation solution: Merge the reserves
Environmental News Network, Copyright 2000
December 12, 2000
By: John Nchami
With the merging of two reserves in Cameroon in a corridor linking the Boumba-Bek and Nki reserves in the country's southeastern forests, the government of Cameroon has agreed to form what will be the its largest protected area, covering more than 4,725 square miles.
The World Wide Fund for Nature, which has worked since 1992 for the protection of these two biologically significant areas, has new cause for celebration.
"We have already accomplished the most difficult stages of the process, which entailed extensive consultation with the local communities to involve them in the plans and boundary demarcation," says Paul Noupa, WWF protected area adviser. "Now nobody will be able to claim ignorance of the existence of the national park and the local people will be involved in the conservation of the area."
WWF has also prepared a zoning plan and detailed technical document for the area.
The Boumba-Bek and Nki reserves are the only two unlogged areas in the Cameroon's southeastern forests. Both reserves are home to large populations of elephants, buffaloes, chimpanzees, gorillas, bongos, assorted drill species and antelopes.
Most of these animals, from the biggest elephant to the smallest antelope, can be seen in the open forest clearings, or savanna, found chiefly in Boumba-Bek Reserve.
These forest clearings offer wonderful opportunities for wildlife management because it is relatively easy to follow the animals and monitor their movements by radio tracking. The savannas also offer excellent possibilities for eco-tourism.
A six- to 10-hour meandering boat ride down the Ngoko and Dja rivers ends at the majestic Nki waterfalls. "Nobody who ever visited this site has remained unmoved," says Noupa.
Two fish species, new to science, were recently discovered in the waters of Nki Reserve, and the expectation is that much more is out there to be discovered.
Although much has been achieved, much remains to be done. The two biologically significant areas face a new threat by the recent creation of logging concessions around them.
With the installation of sawmills in the logging concessions will come an increase in human population and more pressure on natural resources and wildlife. Poaching is likely to increase.
WWF's protected area adviser however, says the merger of Boumba-Bek and Nki is a bonus in the battle against illegal hunting through the public awareness it has created. Newly established transboundary patrols are already helping to stem wildlife poaching within the reserves.
John Nchami is the communications officer in WWF's Cameroon program office in Yaounde.