Places

Sudano-Sahel

How Will We Get There?

To help do this, we are employing some core strategies:

• Utilizing partnerships for protected area creation and management.
• Creating full-chain wildlife law enforcement programs.
• Crafting and effecting sustainable landscape-scale planning and management.
• Developing conservation-security partnerships which explicitly contribute to the security of both people and wildlife.
• Improving the well-being of the people living in and around the sites in which we work.
• Working with government and international partners to mainstream green development strategies and approaches.

Why WCS?

WCS has a significant presence in Sudano-Sahel region, with a strong conservation history and proven success in protected area management. We work actively to support local livelihoods, develop conservation-security partnerships, enhance anti-trafficking activities, and to implement our policy and scientific programs.

The Sudano-Sahel region includes some of the most progressive and effective country programs in WCS's Global Conservation portfolio, and WCS's legacy there dates back to the 1970s. The program includes several of WCS's key long-term, site-based programs in Africa (including Mbam & Djerem National Park in Cameroon and the Boma and Badingilo National Parks in South Sudan). WCS is also developing a number of pioneering conservation management models, including private-public partnerships for protected area management; community conservancies; conservation-security partnerships; landscape-scale, integrated law enforcement approaches; and engagement with extractive industries.

Creating full-chain wildlife law enforcement programs

This includes intelligence-led anti-poaching (including terrestrial and aerial surveillance), anti-trafficking (at landscape, national, transboundary levels), and legal follow up on prosecutions, to halt illegal wildlife poaching and trafficking and improve governance at local, national and international scales.

Developing conservation-security partnerships which explicitly contribute to the security of both people and wildlife

This includes the stabilization of remote insecure zones, creating security cooperation and information sharing agreements, partnerships between protected areas, local authorities, communities, and armed forces, and surveillance which detects and addresses threats to both human and wildlife security and mitigates conflicts. It means fostering good governance and stability and reducing conflict in remote areas which are susceptible to corruption, insecurity, and local and global threats (including banditry, terrorism, and insurgency development).

Improving the well-being of the people living in and around the sites in which we work

People depend on the savannas and forests of the Sudano-Sahel region for their water, culture, food, shelter, and livelihoods. We're looking to support them in three main ways:

• Working at new scales and with new partners to improve food security. The single biggest threat to wildlife is trafficking (ivory, scales, skins) and the commercial bushmeat trade.
• Piloting community-based management of wild places and the establishment and management of conservancies.
• Aiding local communities in enhancing sustainable natural resource use practices (fisheries, Shea, Gum, etc.) and connecting them with viable markets.

Working with government and international partners to mainstream green development strategies and approaches

We aim to positively influence major infrastructure and macro development planning by providing scientific guidance and policy support. This includes influencing dam and hydro plant construction, major road development, and macro zoning plans for development projects in the countries of the Sudano-Sahel region. Also, we're working to promote "green" energy options to reduce pressures on natural resources and manage and reduce charcoal production.