Jengi

Central Africa Programme: Jengi Project achievements

Primary school children near the Lobeke National Park listen to basic health tips from Health Scouts trained with support from the Jengi project.
© WWF / Peter Ngea

What are the key achievements of the Jengi Project?

Some of the projects key achievements and activities include:

Protected Areas (PA) establishment and management

Establishment of three national parks Lobéké, Boumba-Bek and Nki covering about 760,000 hectares of forest
Designation of Lobeke national park as a Gift to the Earth (GTTE) with Lobéké National Park already GTTE
Management and business plans for Lobeke national park approved by government
Creation and launching of a management committee for Lobeke National Park
Establishment of 14 community hunting areas around national parks for community use
Development of an ecological monitoring program to monitor key bio-indicators and trends
Participatory mapping of use areas of Baka pygmies in national parks and surrounding forest areas
32,000 hectares community zone demarcated in Lobeke National Park
Training and recruitment of 43 game guards to support anti-poaching and surveillance operations
Building management and communications infrastructure for the three national parks

Sustainable Forest Management (SFM)

Accompanying logging companies in Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certification process. 314655 ha of forest already certified while 130,000ha are in the pipeline
Wildlife inventories and socio economic studies completed in a number of concessions to promote good forest management practices
Training of workers of logging companies in reduce impact logging techniques, use of monitoring tools and inventory techniques
Logging companies signed MOUs with WWF for technical assistance to promote Certification and good forest management practices
Network for forest technicians established to promote capacity building and information sharing in certification and forest management
Production of 5 management plans for community forests
Participatory land use planning and approval of 22 logging concessions, 14 community wildlife zones and 4 community forest zones within project area

Sign board at one of WWF base camps around the newly created Boumba Bek National Park, Cameroon
© WWF Jengi Project

Jengi Forest Technicians make regular visits to forest concessions for practical sessions on sustainable forest management and certification process
© WWF Jengi Project

Sustainable Wildlife Management

Establishment of collaborative conventions for anti-poaching and fight against bush meat trade with logging companies
Establishment of community hunting zones to address subsistent hunting needs
Construction and equipment of 6 control posts amounting to USD$100,000 to support law enforcement and surveillance operations
Training of government staff in various aspects related to monitoring, law enforcement etc
Long term monitoring program established to provide data on population status of large mammals as well as surveillance effort
Technical assistance to support micro projects for alternative protein production

Partnership Building

Establishment of consultative platforms between local communities and major stakeholders
Building local management institutions as village wildlife management committees
Trans-border committees for coordination of Tri National de la Sangha activities established
Elaboration of strategic document for partnership with mining sector in TRIDOM
Elaboration of strategic document for management of Ngoyla Mintom forest block
Elaboration of strategic approaches for management of Ngoyla-Mintom forest massif

Collaborative Management

Nine Community based Wildlife Resource Management Committees (COVAREFs) established and operational
Delimitation of Baka use zones in Boumba Bek national park and other community use zones in Nki and Lobeke parks
Marketing of trophy hunting in community hunting zones generating estimated annual revenues of USD $30,000
Training of community leaders in conflict management, and micro-projects development
Training of village health scouts to support village health programs

Flagship Species Conservation and Monitoring

Baseline data, densities and distribution of flagship species as elephants, and great apes in national parks available
Monitoring illegal killing of elephants, MIKE currently implemented to monitor elephant hunting and ivory trade
Elephants have been radio collared and monitored in southeast Cameroon
Bio-ecological studies carried out for key species as African grey parrots and bongo antelope

Trans boundary Conservation Initiative

TNS and TRIDOM transboundary agreements signed by member countries Cameroon,, Central African Republic, Gabon and Congo Brazzaville
Regular tri-national patrols and other field activities implemented by park authorities of tri-national de la Sangha landscape
Landuse plan document produced for TNS landscape
Estimated $10million mobilised for setting up TNS trust fund

Challenges

Development of management plans for Boumba-Bek and Nki national parks
Negotiating user rights of indigenous forest people within national parks
Reactivating Mambale convention between professional hunters and local communities
Wildlife inventories of professional hunting zones to determine hunting quotas and for monitoring purposes
Establishing network for community based forest enterprises
Implementation of TRIDOM accord with protected areas in Republic of Congo Brazzaville and Gabon
Establishing TNS trust fund