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 -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶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. -------------- - Recognizing the Need for Wildlife Conservation -------------- - ¶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. -------------- Saving the Zakouma Elephants -------------- ¶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. -------------- New Transboundary Park with Cameroon -------------- ¶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. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶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