Sangha Trinational

• Civil unrest
• Poaching
• Mining
• Road and river transport project
• Optical fibre project in the vicinity of the property
• Forestry exploitation permits in the buffer zone

Total amount granted: 250,000 Euros from 2008 to 2013 and 400 000 Euros from 2016 to 2018 through the Central African World Heritage Forest Initiative (CAWHFI) funded by the European Union

From 15 to 25 October 2016, a joint World Heritage Centre / IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission visited the Central African and Congolese parts of the property. On 14 November 2016, the three States Parties submitted a joint report on the state of conservation of the property, available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1380/documents and providing the following information:

• Increased surveillance efforts, with technical and financial support from external partners, have resulted in an increase in anti-poaching missions of around 23% in 2015 compared to 2014, including cross-border patrols. In Cameroon, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministries of Forestry and Wildlife and Defense in September 2016 for the regular conduct of mixed patrols;
• In Congo, no mining exploration permits have been renewed since 2013. In the Central African Republic, the mining exploration license granted to Clima Dubai MW International in 2012 in the buffer zone of the property was repealed on 7 April 2015. In Cameroon, all exploration permits in Lobéké National Park have expired. Gold mining is also prohibited, but it persists in the buffer zone of the property, in Cameroon and the Central African Republic;
• The Ouesso-Bangui road project is in the consultation and awareness-raising of stakeholders phase. Work has not yet started;
• The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the optical fibre project has been completed;
• A system for monitoring and controlling the legality of logging by SINFOCAM (Central African Forestry and Industrial Development Corporation) and STBC (Wood Processing Company in the Central African Republic) was set up in the Dzanga-Sangha Protected Areas (APDS). An Anti-poaching Unit has been operational since April 2016 in the exploitation zone of SINFOCAM, financed by the company and under the supervision of the managing authority for the APDS;
• Persistence of poaching, particularly of large mammals, in all sections of the property;
• Observance of illegal activities in the buffer zone of the property, including the advance of the agricultural frontier, harvesting of non-timber forest products and cutting down of timber in Cameroon, where an increase in the human-wildlife conflict is also observed;
• Update of the development plans for the various sections of the property. In Congo, measures have been taken to contribute to the sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources, targeted particularly at women and indigenous peoples. In Cameroon, a three-year resource development programme aims, among other things, to secure the right of the Baka to exploit their resources in areas identified within the property.

It is recommended that the Committee congratulate the States Parties on the intensification of their anti-poaching coordination efforts. However, the mission found that the natural resources of the property are under increasing pressure, including from poaching of large mammals, but also from hunting of small and medium-sized wildlife for bushmeat consumption. It is recommended that the Committee request the States Parties to further strengthen their efforts to combat environmental crime and for the seizure of weapons of war within the perimeter of the property, and to further awareness-raising among judicial authorities in this regard.

It is also recommended that the Committee welcome the fact that no mining license is now available in the buffer zone of the property. However, the persistence of gold panning is worrisome. It is therefore recommended that the Committee call upon the States Parties to strengthen their efforts to eradicate illegal mining activities in the property and its buffer zone and to implement a plan for the ecological restoration of sites degraded by illegal activities.

The implementation by the APDS of a system for monitoring logging is appreciated. It is recommended, however, that the Committee recall that the allocation of these concessions in the buffer zone of the property presents certain risks to the integrity of the property, and that it requests States Parties to require that all forest concessions in the buffer zone of the property be certified in order to minimize the seriousness of the potential threats they pose to the property.

The mission found that the optical fibre project was completed without significant impact on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property. It was noted that the Ouesso-Bangui road project is in the consultation phase. It is imperative that any decision on the implementation of this project be based on a rigorous EIA including a specific study of the impacts of the project on the OUV of the property in accordance with the IUCN Advice Note on Environmental Assessments for World Heritage.

It should be recalled that when the property was inscribed, the Committee recognized that "the rights and traditional livelihoods of local and indigenous peoples, such as the Bakas, are a fundamental and increasingly recognized element [...] in the management of the property", and that "the inscription [of the property] presents a concrete opportunity for States Parties to translate a range of different commitments of the States Parties regarding the rights of local and indigenous people into action on the ground”. In this regard, the promotion in Congo of a sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources targeting women and indigenous peoples and, in Cameroon, the right of the Baka to exploit their resources in areas identified within the property are welcomed.

Finally, it is recommended that the Committee request the States Parties to implement all the recommendations of the reactive monitoring mission.