• 13 national parks
• 29,200 km²
• 10.8% of land in Gabon
• Savanna
• Mangroves
• Lowland forest
• Beaches
• Swamp
Birds
• Longtailed hawk
• Loango weaver
Mammals
• Chimpanzee
• Red river hog
• Leopard
• Mandrill
• Humpback whale
• Elephant
• Hippo
• Gorilla
Since 2004
The study is a joint activity of Boston College and the WCS-Gabon Program, with financial support from the MacArthur Foundation and the WCS.
Learning how protected areas influence the
welfare of local people is a key to implementing effective wildlife
conservation policies…
Name : Josephine Demmer
Title : Project Manager
Email :
jdemmer[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
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.
• Site-based conservation
• Research
• Training and capacity-building
• New model development
• Informing policy
• Linking zoo-based and field-based conservation
Contributions to this project can be sent to the WCS Africa Program in NY (address above)
Crossing the Ogooué River in a dugout canoe ©David
Wilkie
Do National Parks have positive or negative impacts on local people? On the one hand, Parks can bring benefits to remote areas, by providing jobs or tourist revenues. On the other hand, by restricting access to natural resources, Parks may have adverse impacts on the welfare of local people.
During the World Parks Congress in Durban in 2002, a crescendo of voices espoused the belief that National Parks were bad for local people. However, demonstrating that protected areas create a drag on local economies is difficult. First, we have never had the opportunity to assess household welfare both before and after the establishment of Parks and Reserves.
Second, longitudinal studies have not been completed that track changes in human welfare indicators over time within households adjacent to a protected area. And third, results have not been compared to data gathered contemporaneously on a control group of households located outside the sphere of influence of the Park or Reserve.
President Omar Bongo of Gabon, by establishing 13 new National Parks, covering over 10% of the nation's terrestrial landscape, has provided the conservation community, conservation philanthropies, and governments a unique opportunity to formally assess the impact that protected areas have on the welfare of households that fall within their sphere of influence.
To be more specific we have a unique opportunity to conduct a classic and scientifically robust, pre-test/post-test analysis with controls to assess the effects of protected areas on human welfare. This study will compare the welfare of households influenced by Gabon’s Parks with households untouched by the new protected areas, thus helping ensure that changes in welfare are not attributed to the Parks when they are, in fact, the result of external factors.
Participatory mapping exercise near Birougou National Park
©Matthew Steil
To measure the impact of Parks on people we will conduct baseline human welfare assessments of households around 4 Parks in Gabon (~2,000 households in total). Surveys will be repeated 12 months and 60 months later to appraise the immediate and longer term impacts of establishing protected areas on household welfare. Half the households selected for the study will have traditionally used natural resources within the Park. The other 50% of households will live outside of the sphere of influence of the Park and will serve as controls.
The project will generate empirical data that will be analyzed to assess the impact of protected areas on household welfare in local communities. Within 12 months the project will be able to assess the role of proximity to Park borders on household welfare. By the end of the study this project will be able to characterize the immediate and longer term effects on household welfare of changes in resource access and income generating opportunities associated with the establishment of Parks.
This study will be the first to provide scientifically defensible and unbiased data to assess the impact of protected areas on household welfare. Understanding whether and how protected areas influence the welfare of households that reside close to Parks and Reserves is a critical first step in developing and implementing policies to address any adverse effects of Parks on people, or identifying policy options that increase local benefits associated with Parks.