GABON

Highlights
Total area:

2,050 km²

Habitat Types

• Giant ancient sand dune system, covered by large grass and wooded savannah patches separated by lines of dense gallery forest.
• Proceeding northward, the soils become heavier and the vegetation transitions to forest.

Wildlife Present:

• Grimm's duiker, side striped jackal, Denham's bustard, elephant, buffalo, bushpigs, long­-snouted crocodiles, pythons and probably very few lions.
• A new species of bird (“Téké cisticola”) was discovered in 2002 and will soon be described.

WCS Involvement:

Since 2004

Partners

Gabon National Parks Office , Gabon Ministry of Water and Foests, PPG (Project of Protection of Gorillas) and John Aspinall Foundation.

... present-day ecosystem of the Bateke Plateau has been deeply influenced by human activity for at least 3.000 years.

Contacts

Name: Romain Calaque,
Title : DVM Director of Plateau Bateke National Park Project
Email : rcalaque[AT SIGN]wcsgabon[DOT]org

Address :
Wildlife Conservation Society,
BP 7847,
Libreville,
Gabon.

For more information, see www.wcs.org/africa

Wildlife Conservation Society International Conservation,
Africa Program,
2300 Southern Blvd.,
Bronx, NY 10460, USA

www.wcs.org/africa

Mission

The Wildlife Conservation Society's International Conservation program saves wildlife and wild lands by understanding and resolving critical problems that threaten key species and large, wild ecosystems around the world.

WCS Strategies

•  Site-based conservation
•  Research
•  Training and capacity-building
•  New model development
•  Informing policy
•  Linking zoo-based and field-based conservation

Support this Project!

Contributions to this project can be sent to the WCS Africa Program in NY (address above)


Bateke Plateau savannahs  © David Harwood

Bateke Plateau National Park

In the context of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, WCS is helping to manage a transborder (Gabon and the Republic of Congo) program of conservation on the Bateke Plateau. In Gabon, the Presidency created in 2002 the Bateke Plateau National Park to protect this unique savannah ecosystem. In partnership with the Foundation John Aspinall, the WCS is providing technical and financial assistance to help effectively manage this protected area.

The Human Aspect

The present-day ecosystem of the Bateke Plateau (savannas, gallery forests, etc.) has been deeply influenced by human activity (agriculture, hunting, savannah burning, etc.) for at least 3.000 years; more than almost anywhere else in the Congo Basin, the maintenance of biodiversity on the Plateau is directly related to human activities.

However, more recently, these human activities - mainly commercial hunting – have intensified to the point that the biodiversity of the Bateke Plateau is seriously threatened. In an ecosystem of nearly 6 million hectares (1,482,630 acres), the only zone still relatively rich in fauna is the Bateke Plateau National Park (200,000 hectares). In addition, the ancient and rich cultural traditions of the Téké Kingdom (one of the three large kingdoms in the sub-region), are also under threat from rapid cultural change taking place.

Threats

Hunting in the National Park and its periphery by Congolese and Gabonese poachers, associated with fires also which occur so frequently as to upset the maintenance of biodiversity.

Lack of sound legal base, funding problems and insufficient human resources make protected area management in Gabon difficult. This is compounded by insufficient political and popular support for the new Gabon National Parks Office.

Limited support for the National Park amongst local communities due to lack of concrete benefits resulting from conservation activities.

Elephants
Elephants in the Mpassa River     © Paul Telfer

WCS Activities

Recruitment, training and equipping of a team of technicians necessary for managing the National Park (guards, assistants of ecological and socio-economic monitoring teams, tourist guides and so forth), along with mentoring of the Head Warden. The social science team has visited all of the villages around the Park, doing community outreach and working to identify possible conflicts that will need further attention. The biological monitoring team has done several missions into the Park, and is documenting the presence of large mammals. A recent mission has found unconfirmed tracks of lions, thought to have disappeared from the region, and camera traps have been placed along trails in an effort to confirm their presence in the Park. Ultimately these teams will be placed under the control of the Park management team, when the budgets and legal statutes allow it.

Improvement of popular local support for National Park through small-scale development projects (feasibility studies are underway of micro-agricultural projects and ecotourism potential), educational activities (mentoring of about thirty teachers around the Park) and media promotion (articles in newspapers, radio transmissions, documentary TV).

A campaign against illegal hunting in and around the Park has been underway for the past year. WCS has supported anti-poaching missions with government authorities from the Ministry of Water and Forest, and we are working with local communities to help them manage their own traditional hunting territories against incursions by outsiders.

Important next steps