CHAD STEPS UP WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND PROTECTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NDJAMENA 000461

DEPARTMENT FOR AF/C, OES/PCI
STATE PLEASE PASS USAID/AFRICA/SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (DAVID
ATWOOD)
ACCRA FOR REO (FISHMAN) AND FOR USAID/WA

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SENV TBIO EFIS EAID CD
SUBJECT: CHAD STEPS UP WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND PROTECTION

NDJAMENA 00000461 001.3 OF 002


REFTEL: NDJAMENA 460

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SUMMARY
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1. This is the second of three cables on Chad's interest in
environmental affairs. The Republic of Chad is facing serious
environmental challenges but working slowly to improve conditions
and protect elephants from poaching at Zakouma, the country's
flagship national park. At the same time, recognizing the need for
greater efforts to preserve Chad's rich tapestry of threatened and
vulnerable species, the government plans to create a new national
park by the end of 2009 along the border with Cameroon that will
establish a large transboundary wildlife corridor between the
countries. END SUMMARY.

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Recognizing the Need for Wildlife Conservation
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2. Chad is blessed with a rich array of wildlife that includes
elephants, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, antelopes and gazelles,
wild buffalos and cattle, ostriches and Arabian bustards, migratory
water birds, and manatees. On October 7-8, officials from the
Ministry of Environment and Aquatic Resources and representatives
from wildlife conservation NGO APROCOFF (the Chadian Association for
the Protection and Conservation of Fauna and Flora),told embassy
officers and visiting West and Central Africa Regional Environmental
Officer (REO) that the government was acutely aware of the need to
protect and conserve Chad's endangered and vulnerable wildlife,
especially in light of the intense period of elephant poaching from
2007-2008 at Zakouma, the country's leading national park.

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Saving the Zakouma Elephants
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3. Both Abakar Zougoulou , the Director of the Ministry of
Environment's Forestry Department, which is responsible for
establishing and maintaining national parks and protected reserves,
and Hamdane Annadif, the President of APROCOFF, reflected on one
recent improvement in Zakouma National Park, home to Chad's largest
elephant population. They acknowledged that the elephant population
had dropped dramatically in the park, from an estimated 3,000
elephants at the beginning of 2007, to as few as 619 elephants by
the end of 2008. (Note: Aerial and photographic surveys of the
park in 2005 estimated that there were at least 3,885 elephants in
the park, a dramatically increased population due directly to the
protection afford by the national park.)


4. The Forestry Department Director attributed the 70-80 percent
decline in the elephant population to an intense period of poaching
in 2007-2008, as both Chadian and Sudanese poachers took advantage
of regional and civil conflict and political instability to engage
in rampant and widespread ivory poaching. In addition to the
widespread slaughter of elephants in Zakouma, poachers had killed
seven park rangers and guards in 2007 and 2008 (the park's total
complement of rangers and guards is 89). He noted that poachers
were taking ivory from Zakouma and transporting it overland through
Sudan (via Geneina, El Fashir and Khartoum) to Nairobi, Kenya, where
it was then mainly shipped from Mombasa, Kenya to Hong Kong, though
a smaller quantity of Chadian-origin ivory was also being
transferred from Kenya to Uganda and DRC.


5. Despite the success, Zakouma's guards and rangers had been armed
withrifles and ammunition, and received two motorized ehicles for
conducting patrols, though patrols wre still primarily conducted on
horseback. Rangr ad guard coverage of the park was admittedly
sill sparse, with only one ranger for every thirty quare
kilometers of park land. The park's limitd aerial resources were
currently only used for counting wildlife, rather than for
surveillance, protection and enforcement work.

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New Transboundary Park with Cameroon
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6. Officials and NGO representatives also stated that the government
was working to create a third national park by the end of 2009, in
addition to Chad's two existing national parks and seven protected
reserves. Once established, Sena-Oura National Park would protect
11,000 hectares of wilderness that lie along the border with
Cameroon. The Chadian park would form a large trans-boundary
wildlife corridor and protected area with Cameroon's Bouba-Djida
National Park and would protect many of the same species as in

NDJAMENA 00000461 002.3 OF 002


Zakouma, as well as antelopes.


7. The draft bill to establish the new park has been approved by the
government and is on the legislative calendar to be adopted by the
parliament before the end of 2009. The effort to establish a larger
transboundary protected area with Cameroon has been endorsed by
COMIFAC (the Central African Forest Commission). Likewise, the
decision to establish the protected area was taken after extensive
consultations and collaboration with local communities, according to
the Forestry Director.

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COMMENT
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8. Chad will no doubt continue to face major challenges with
protecting the elephants of Zakouma from ivory poachers and in
standing up and effectively staffing a new park along the border
with Cameroon.
To date, however, the GOC has not provided the requisite level of
budget resources to its national parks or wildlife preserves. The
Zakouma National Park was successful in providing a safehaven for
the reconstitution of many species thank only to a massive and
long-term funding effort on the part of the EU. The second national
park, Manda, suffers from neglect and exists in name only.


9. Perhaps a growing awareness of the desirability to save Chad's
wildlife heritage will result in the necessary budgetary resources
for a third park. In that case, the USG and other international
donors could have additional real opportunities to engage more fully
on projects with Chadian officials and NGO representatives on the
best practices in wildlife conservation and protection. END
COMMENT.

NIGRO