Decision 17 BUR VIII.2

Niokolo-Roba National Park (Senegal)

The Bureau recalled that at its last session in July 1992 it had requested IUCN to provide a report on the progress in the implementation of measures to mitigate environmental impacts of a road construction protect in this Park. The Representative of IUCN informed the Bureau that the University of Dakar, Senegal, had undertaken an independent assessment of the implementation of mitigation measures and that the findings of this study had been validated by the Regional Representative of IUCN for West Africa. The Bureau was pleased to note that the study had found the implementation of mitigation measures to be satisfactory and the impacts on the Park to be minimal. However, the Bureau noted that the implementation of the road construction project had caused a number of concerns, particularly the wider impacts due to the presence of a new transportation corridor traversing the region, which were not originally foreseen. The Bureau commended the Senegalese National Park authorities who had co-operated with IUCN to prepare a "white paper" addressing these unforeseen consequences and the long-term future of the Park, and elaborated three strategies which would become part of a major project for ensuring the long­term future of the Park. The Committee noted that these strategies will be discussed during a donors' meeting, co­sponsored by the Senegalese National Park authorities and IUCN's Regional Office for West Africa and scheduled for 28 June 1993, and requested that the outcome of the donors' meeting be made available to the Centre for submission to the next session of the Committee. The Bureau requested the Centre to make copies of the "white paper" available for any interested States Party.