Forest concessionaires meet on management of wildlife resources in the Congo Basin forest
Yaounde, Cameroon, 14th June 2010—forty participants from a wide range of conservation, industry and international development agencies met in Libreville, Gabon, this June to formulate ways to integrate wildlife management into logging concessions and into the development of bushmeat policies and strategies.
The workshop was organized by TRAFFIC and included delegates from NGOs and development organizations including TRAFFIC, WWF, ZSL, FAO, IRET, WCS, CIRAD and GTZ, plus ministry representatives of several Central Africa Forests Commission (COMIFAC) countries—Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo and Gabon, together with forestry companies ALPICAM, CBG, CIB, OLAM, PALLISCO, and the sustainable forest management expert consultancy firm SYLVAFRICA.
Participants shared real-life cases studies on how wildlife is taken into account in logging concessions and presented the current legislations in the various Congo Basin countries concerning wildlife in the specific context of logging concessions.
Participants discussed the definition of good practices concerning wildlife and hunting management within forest concessions, including the objectives, activities, outcomes and indicators of success that would need to be covered by an action plan. In addition, the major responsibilities for the various stakeholder groups were clarified.
Priority actions identified by delegates included:
• For forest administrators, implementation of forest patrols and clarifying and completing relevant legislation relating to wildlife in forest concessions;
• Involvement of indigenous and local communities in drawing up wildlife management plans;
• For forest concessionaires, to inform and educate workers in logging concessions about relevant legislation and to comply with relevant rules and to establish sustainable partnerships with governments and relevant institutions.
TRAFFIC made presentations on the development of a Central African bushmeat monitoring system, SYVBAC (SYstème de suivi de la fillière Viande de Brousse en Afrique Centrale) and its work within OFAC (L'Observatoire des Forêts d'Afrique Centrale).
Participants stressed the need to secure adequate financial support to enable testing of the indicators developed under SYVBAC at the various pilot sites ahead of the system’s implementation throughout the subregion.
There was extensive African media interest and coverage of the meeting, which was held thanks to support from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
Workshop procedings (PDF, 1 MB; in French)
