Sudan

Working in Sudan: Frequently asked questions

1) Isn't WCS concerned about working with government in Sudan?
The Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) is a semi-autonomous entity within Sudan, established by the US-sponsored Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 which ended 22 years of civil war between the Sudan People's Liberation Army and the central government in Khartoum.  The GoSS has the right to establish relationships with international organizations such as WCS.  WCS works only in Southern Sudan and has no relationship with the central government of Sudan in Khartoum.

2) Is there wildlife in Southern Sudan?
Southern Sudan is larger than Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda combined, with an estimated human population of only about 7 million. Approximately 20% of this land is formally protected as parks, though there have been few conservation activities since the onset of war in the 1980s.  WCS, in partnership with the GoSS, is currently carrying out the first systematic aerial surveys of all of the parks and other potentially important wildlife areas since before the civil war. Results of theses surveys are expected shortly.

3) Is the WCS Southern Sudan Program new?
Although WCS has not been able to work in Southern Sudan since the beginning of the civil war in the 1980s, in the 1960s-1980s WCS (then the New York Zoological Society) had a substantial program which included support of Fryxell's pioneering work on the migration and lekking of the white-eared kob in Boma Park.

4) How can you focus on wildlife when human needs are so pressing?
Support from WCS and other partners to the people and Government of Southern Sudan to enable them to manage their natural resources in a wise and sustainable manner is an integral part of the effort to rebuild this war-torn nation.  The people of Southern Sudan will depend on these resources--oil, rangeland, grass, water, wildlife-- for their livelihoods for the foreseeable future, and it is vital that the benefits from these resources flow equitably and transparently to today's people of Southern Sudan and their descendants.

More information about our work in Sudan will be posted shortly