Ecological Monitoring in Garamba National Park, DRC
© Nuria Ortega
Over the last decades, Garamba National Park has been a major target of militant ivory and bushmeat poachers, which threatens the site drastically.
Therefore, an effective law enforcement strategy and ecological monitoring were implemented. The recommendations of the 2016 joint UNESCO/IUCN Reactive monitoring mission as well as the persistence of various urgent conservation issues, resulted in several recommendations made by the World Heritage Committee such as Decision 43 COM 7A.7, adopted at its 43rd session (Baku, 2019).
In response to the above-mentioned issues, the project funded by Norway aims at contributing to the management efforts undertaken in Garamba National Park, precisely by strengthening knowledge on key wildlife species across the entire Garamba complex to guide management decisions. More specifically, it aims to gain a better understanding of the diversity of ecosystems and the population dynamics inside the property while contributing to the empowerment of local communities and the strengthening of the operational capacities of management teams.
Garamba National Park was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1980 and was inscribed on the List in Danger in 1996.
Situated in the north-eastern part of the DRC, this 500,000-ha wide natural park covers savannahs, grasslands as well as woodlands that are interspersed by gallery forests and marshland depressions. Among its exceptionally rich biomass of large mammals and flora, endemic sub-species of Congolese giraffes as well as mixed population of elephants can be found.
Objectives
Empower local communities for sustainable socio-economic development
Contribute to the development of income-generating activities in order to empower local communities for sustainable socio-economic development around the property by involving these communities and ensuring efficient and sustainable protection, management and infrastructure.
Ensure effective protection and management of the property
Strengthen the operational capacities of management teams to ensure effective protection and management of the property.
Progress made
- Development and review of the technical proposal with ICCN and APN
- The implementation partner has been identified in consultation with the State Party and the dossier was developed and submitted to the UNESCO’s Contract Committee. Following this approval, an implementation partners agreement with African Parks Network (APN) was issued in August 2020.
- The partner is implementing several activities such as the preparation of collaring and monitoring operations on giraffes and elephants’ populations to have a better understanding of their distribution in the park. In the context of COVID-19, the partner is also organizing mobile clinic missions mixed with environmental education outreach, and awareness raising among communities on elephants and giraffe’s conservation as well as on World Heritage site status. All activities are conducted in cooperation with local communities with special consideration for the rights of the indigenous communities.
Partners
African Parks Network (APN) and
Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN)
This project is made possible thanks to the financial support of
the Norwegian government.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
