Taï National Park

a) Poaching

b) Agricultural encroachment

c) Mining for gold

In June 2006, UNESCO and IUCN conducted a mission to the property, in conjunction with the mission to Comoé National Park. The mission found that the recent national political crisis had not impacted the site as seriously as it had affected Comoé National Park. The number of park rangers and scientists had been reduced but the remaining staff continued their activities during this period. Human population pressure and encroachment due to the loss of lands in the region caused by the Buyo dam construction and the presence of refugees from neighboring countries were the main problems observed by the mission,.

The mission confirmed that the property continues to maintain its outstanding universal value (OUV) and that the main threats to the latter are commercial poaching and illegal activities taking place close to the park’s borders. In particular the villagers living between the Cavally River and Liberian border feel unjustly deprived of the fertile lands within the park.

The mission report proposed the following key recommendations:

(i) Strengthen surveillance and improve the collected data during poaching control;

(ii) Conduct ecological and wildlife surveys based on the new protocols from the Management Plan for the park;

(iii) Extend the socio-economic and educational activities of the east of the park also to the west;

(iv) Assess the feasibility of ecological corridors

(v) Harmonize the zoning system;

(vi) Re-launch international cooperation;

(vii) Approve and implement the Management Plan;

(viii) Study park resource use and park resource use conflict;

(ix) Enlarge research on the functioning of the ecosystem;

(x) Prepare an interpretation and education scheme, and an ecotourism strategy.

The mission proposed to address the 4 first recommendations on an emergency basis and suggested a 10 year timeframe for the implementation of all overall list of recommendations.

A report was received from the State Party dated December 2006, which describes the progress in park management for the period June 2005 to June 2006. Management efforts are ongoing despite the political situation, with assistance from international partners including the German KfW/GTZ, WWF, and the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation. Although ecotourism has been affected, the infrastructure for ecotourism is being maintained. The State Party reports that poaching continues to be a problem and plans to apply for International Assistance to address this issue. The report includes information on the following issues:

a) Surveillance of the park

Patrolling of the park is intensive with both sectoral guards and a mobile brigade, achieving an average of 84% of the planned patrol days per month. Patrolling takes place in all sectors of the park with a coverage of 65% of the total area. The main target species for poaching are duikers and primates, which account for 80% of seizures by guards who apprehended 91 poachers, 28 illegal gold miners and 4 farmers. The apprehensions resulted in 51 convictions, 27 reprieves and 50 non-convictions.

b) Local community and the peripheral zone

The programmes to raise awareness among the local population and the permanent activities of the forestry police suggest a decrease in the use of bush meat based on the following observations:

(i) Local eateries are increasingly serving beef, poultry and fish;

(ii) Traffickers of bush meat are increasingly discrete;

(iii) Primates, buffalos and even elephants can be observed in the area east of the park, which previously had a reputation as the empty zone;

(iv) The local population, particularly young people, are involved in the micro-enterprise projects initiated by the park; and

(v) Poachers are spending less time in the park by using artisanal animal traps.

However, these are qualitative observations and there has been no structured study to confirm these trends.

c) Degraded areas

An ecological monitoring unit was established in 1998 to study the evolution of degraded areas and the dynamics of wildlife populations in the Park. The State Party has used comparisons of satellite imagery to confirm that the forest area and degraded area remain the same, demonstrating that conservation and restoration activities have been successful in the park.

The World Heritage Centre and IUCN recognize the many positive activities being undertaken in the park and in particular the efforts in controlling illegal activities and raising awareness with the communities neighbouring the park. The Centre and IUCN encourage the park authorities to monitor the distribution and size of its major wildlife populations in order to establish their trend as well as conduct further studies on the status of the park’s forest ecosystem and the habitat as a whole.