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Gabon
HIGHLIGHTS
Management Assistance in:
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Ivindo NP
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Bateke Plateau NP
Technical Assistance in:
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Akanda NP
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Pongara NP
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Capacity building for Gabon Nat’l Parks Office
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Park delimitation
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Biological and socio-economic monitoring
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Training of conservation professionals
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Bushmeat issues
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Reduced impact logging
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Wildlife health
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Reduced impact logging
Research Projects
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People and Parks
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Humpback whale ecology
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Elephant ecology
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Ape ecology, health and genetics
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Archaeology in the national parks
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Vegetation history and dynamics in Lopé
Collaborators
Gabon National Parks Council, Ministry of Water and Forests, Ministry of Tourism, CENAREST, CIRMF, ENEF, CIFOR/IRET, WWF, Conservation International, Smithsonian Institution, ASF, Missouri Botanical Garden, USAID/ CARPE, U.S. Forest Service, John Aspinall Foundation, FORM / TFF, Darwin Initiative, MacArthur Foundation
Contacts
Lee White, PhD
Country Program Director
lwhite@uuplus.com
lwhite@wcs.org
WCS Gabon
BP 7847
Libreville, Gabon
Kirstin Siex, PhD
Assistant Director Africa
Program in New York
ksiex@wcs.org
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WCS first started working in Gabon in 1985, when Dr. Richard Barnes initiated a 4-year nationwide elephant survey and discovered that there were about 60,000 elephants hidden in Gabon’s rain forests. This survey was followed by work on natural resource use by rural populations in the Minkébé region in the northeast and by Lee White’s study on the ecological impacts of commercial logging in the Lopé Reserve, now a national park. In 1992, WCS established a country program under Lee White’s direction, based out of the gorilla and chimpanzee research station in Lopé. In 1997, at the invitation of WWF, WCS ran a training program in survey methods at Sette Cama in the Gamba protected area complex, and subsequently designed and implemented a two-year large mammal survey over the 10,000 km2 protected area. In 1999 the Ministry of Water and Forests asked Lee White to design and undertake a nationwide survey of priority sites for biodiversity conservation, co-financed by WWF. These surveys provided a uniquely comprehensive understanding of the ecological and socio-political context for conservation in Gabon. Based on these evaluations, complemented by the results of Dr. Michael Fay’s Mega-transect, Lee and Mike were instrumental in convincing President Bongo to establish a national park system in 2002 that set aside just over 10% of the national patrimony for conservation within 13 National Parks. Since 2003, with funding from the Moore Foundation and USAID, WCS has been assisting the Gabon National Parks Office to manage a number of these protected areas and to plan strategically for eco-tourism development in the country.
Threats
Gabon’s abundant biodiversity is threatened directly by logging and fishing.
The commercialization of bushmeat is another important threat that endangers wildlife populations in Gabon. Plans to extend mining activities in Gabon pose other serious threats to wildlife and its habitats
The Human Aspect
For the past five years, WCS has been collaborating with the Darwin Initiative on a Gabon-wide survey of the bushmeat trade, in an effort to better understand the socio-economic dimensions of this traffic and its potential impact on wildlife (See bushmeat factsheet). Bushmeat is an important source of protein for villagers, as meat from domesticated animals is prohibitively expensive. This contrasts with the towns and cities of Gabon, where bushmeat is a luxury that only a few people can afford for special occasions.
Though it is not possible or even desirable to completely stop hunting by villagers for their own consumption, the commercial hunting done by outsiders must be better controlled. WCS and the Darwin Initiative are currently working with communities to allow them greater control over the wildlife resources in their traditional territories.
More recently, following the creation of Gabon’s 13 National parks, WCS has teamed up with the MacArthur Foundation and Boston College to evaluate the socio-economic impacts of these parks on the livelihoods of nearby villages. Understanding whether and how protected areas influence the welfare of households that reside close to parks is a critical first step in developing and implementing policies to address any adverse effects of parks on people, or identifying policy options that increase local benefits associated with parks.
WCS Activities
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Technical assistance for national park and protected area planning and management
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Capacity building in natural resources management, tourism and scientific research institutions
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Research and monitoring to improve natural resource management
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Park delimitation
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Eco-tourism planning and development
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Wildlife health program
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Bushmeat management program
Important Next Steps
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Promotion of ecotourism development in Gabon
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Creation and development of the Gabon National Parks Management Agency
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Creation of a network of biodiversity sanctuaries as a compliment to the national parks
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Effective management of the bush meat trade
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Promoting development of sustainable forestry and fisheries industries
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