Over the last decades, Garamba National Park has been a major target of militant ivory and bushmeat poachers, which threatens the site drastically.
Therefore, an effective law enforcement strategy and ecological monitoring were implemented. The recommendations of the 2016 joint UNESCO/IUCN Reactive monitoring mission as well as the persistence of various urgent conservation issues, resulted in several recommendations made by the World Heritage Committee such as Decision 43 COM 7A.7, adopted at its 43rd session (Baku, 2019).
In response to the above-mentioned issues, the project funded by Norway aims at contributing to the management efforts undertaken in Garamba National Park, precisely by strengthening knowledge on key wildlife species across the entire Garamba complex to guide management decisions. More specifically, it aims to gain a better understanding of the diversity of ecosystems and the population dynamics inside the property while contributing to the empowerment of local communities and the strengthening of the operational capacities of management teams.
Garamba National Park was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1980 and was inscribed on the List in Danger in 1996.
Situated in the north-eastern part of the DRC, this 500,000-ha wide natural park covers savannahs, grasslands as well as woodlands that are interspersed by gallery forests and marshland depressions. Among its exceptionally rich biomass of large mammals and flora, endemic sub-species of Congolese giraffes as well as mixed population of elephants can be found.
Objectives
Empower local communities for sustainable socio-economic development
Contribute to the development of income-generating activities in order to empower local communities for sustainable socio-economic development around the property by involving these communities and ensuring efficient and sustainable protection, management and infrastructure.
Ensure effective protection and management of the property
Strengthen the operational capacities of management teams to ensure effective protection and management of the property.
Achievements
- Contribution to the local communities empowerment component of the Garamba National Park sustainable development strategy through:
- Mobile medical clinic missions benefitting more than 6000 persons,
- Capacity-building workshops for local authorities on law enforcement reaching 1000 persons,
- Awareness-raising sessions on conservation, hygiene, prevention against COVID-19 and other illnesses and fire management reaching 5000 persons,
- Guided school visits reaching 700 students.
- Installation of satellite collars on 15 elephants,
- Updated elephant and giraffe distribution maps.
Sustainable development goals (SDGs) addressed by the project: 11.4 and 15.1
Partners
African Parks Network (APN) and Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN)
This project is made possible thanks to the financial support of the Norwegian government.
Documents
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Decisions / Resolutions (1)
The World Heritage Committee,
- Having examined Document WHC/19/43.COM/7A.Add,
- Recalling Decisions 41 COM 7A.7 and 42 COM 7A.47 adopted at its 41st (Krakow, 2017) and 42nd (Manama, 2018) sessions respectively,
- Welcomes the State Party’s continued efforts to further strengthen its anti-poaching measures, leading to the deployment of more than 200 guards as defined in the corrective measures adopted in 2016 and encourages the State Party to maintain antipoaching surveillance at these levels;
- Also welcomes the decline in the number of poached elephant carcasses and other seized wildlife products in 2018, but notes that it will be important to confirm these positive trends over a longer timeframe;
- Notes with appreciation the State Party’s effort to engage with Lantoto National Park and the Government of South Sudan, and requests the State Party to continue strengthening this cooperation to reduce the transboundary environmental criminal activities, such as poaching and illegal trans-border trade in wildlife products;
- Also notes with appreciation the radio-collaring of four additional elephants and also requests the State Party to continue its efforts to enhance the monitoring and protection of this species;
- Expresses again its deepest concern for the 48 remaining Kordofan giraffes in the property, a subspecies considered critically endangered, and reiterates its request to the State Party to continue the efforts of ecological monitoring and protection of this species, and further requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre the Strategy and Action Plan for the conservation of giraffes in the property, which has reportedly been finalized;
- Also reiterates its request to the State Party to provide an update on progress achieved towards developing a Buffer Zone for the property to strengthen the protection of its Outstanding Universal Value (OUV);
- Notes with concern the continued absence of a Management Plan for the property, urges the State Party to expedite the completion of the General Management Plan and submit a draft copy to the World Heritage Centre for review by IUCN;
- Notes the State Party’s confirmation of the relocation of the refugee camps outside the property and encourages the Park Management authority to continue its efforts to mitigate the threats in and around the property;
- Regrets once again that the State Party has still not submitted the finalized version of the Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR) and reiterates furthermore its request to the State Party to develop clear indicators for the recovery of key wildlife species populations based on the available data of the 2016 aerial survey and the monitoring system, in order to establish a realistic timeframe for a possible removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger;
- Finally requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2020, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 44th session in 2020;
- Decides to continue to apply the Reinforced Monitoring Mechanism to the property;
- Also decides to retain Garamba National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.