The discussions that followed the different presentations helped to harmonize the participants’ understanding, thus enabling them to define the scope of and shape the sub-regional wildlife management strategy to be developed. After the exchanges, the meeting moved into breakout group sessions that also allowed participants to define the vision, overall objective, specific objectives and 7 priority axes of the Wildlife Management Strategy Paper.

 Organized as part of the CBSP Sustainable Management of the wildlife and bushmeat sector in Central Africa GCP/RAF/455/GFF ("VdB Project" ) of COMIFAC / FAO, the consultation was held from 21 to 23 January 2014, against a background marked by  the absence of a wildlife resource management system, alongside multiple constraints in the field of wildlife management and lack of legal and regulatory frameworks, the absence of a sub-regional strategy to foster sound wildlife exploitation in the Congo Basin, leading to excessive transborder elephant poaching that has taken alarming proportions in recent years. This concern justifies the strong turnout of high-level wildlife experts from Cameroon, Gabon, the CAR and the DRC, who came to help develop a sub-regional strategy for sustainable wildlife management in Central Africa.

 For three days, the experts made inputs taking advantage of the meeting format which consisted of plenary presentations and group work.

The presentations which were highly commended by the participants, focused on the following topics: 

♦ overview of the project

♦ recalling the foundation of the GCP/RAF/455/GFF project and a summary of the status of wildlife management in the four countries covered by said project;

♦ theoretical concepts on the development of a strategy "What is a strategy?”

♦ Integration of the rural population in natural resource and wildlife management: An analysis of wildlife regulations in Congo.

 The discussions that followed the different presentations helped to harmonize the participants’ understanding, thus enabling them to define the scope of and shape the sub-regional wildlife management strategy to be developed. After the exchanges, the meeting moved into breakout group sessions that also allowed participants to define the vision, overall objective, specific objectives and 7 priority axes of the Wildlife Management Strategy Paper.

 To conclude the group sessions, participants selected a roadmap for each strategic axis, which was broken down into four stages, namely: (1) Drafting of the strategy (draft 1) (2) Consultation with stakeholders (draft 2), (3) Consultation within the 10 COMIFAC countries (draft 3), (4) Organization of a subregional validation workshop (draft 4) Forwarding to the COMIFAC Executive Secretariat.

The participants parted on the evening of January 23 on a note of satisfaction and with a sense of pride for having contributed significantly to the development of a strategy for wildlife management in Central Africa.

 
 Details of the consultation which proved to be a rich learning experience are captured in the final communiqué of the workshop available at the link below:

SGT-GTBAC-4417-Rep Tech WS-005-Atelier stratégie jan14-Rapport vs02-Annex communiqué final.pdf (312.1 Ko)