1. CONSERVATION AND LIVELIHOODS LINKAGES
IN AFRICA:
PROVIDING TOOLS FOR MANAGING TRANSBOUNDARY
BIODIVERSITY IN THE UPPER GUINEA FORESTS
C3/C5 Meeting, 11th – 15th March, Bogor
M. Balinga, J. Groves and T. Sunderland

2. BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION IN THE MANO
RIVER UNION
Strategic Orientation:
• Consultative meeting of experts from the MRU States
held in June 2007 in Freetown, Sierra Leone
• Reaffirmed the need and dedication of member States to
collaborate and develop a sub-regional approach to
address issues related to the transboundary
management of protected areas and resources
• Identified five priority transboundary sites for
implementation of collaborative management of
biodiversity

3. BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION IN THE MANO
RIVER UNION
Strategic Orientation:
• The Outamba-Kilimi National Park in Sierra Leone, and the
Madina Oula and Ourekaba Forests in the Republic of Guinea;
• The Gola National Forest in Liberia and the Gola Forest in
Sierra Leone;
• The North Loma National Forest and Wenequezi in Liberia,
and Ziama in Guinea;
• Mount Nimba in Guinea and Ivory Coast and Nimba Nature
Reserve in Liberia.

4. BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION IN THE MANO
RIVER UNION
Operational Constraints:
• Limited funds and resources allocated for operational
management and dialogue processes
• Differences in management strategies, resources and
outputs
• Differences in policies and governance frameworks
• Lack of technical capacity, tools and data for decision
making despite political will
• Inadequate information on status and threats to
biodiversity, constraints and management issues
including linkages to livelihoods.

5. INFORMING THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS
Research Activity:
• ICRAF & CIFOR (LAMIL project) established that building
livelihoods considerations into forest co-mgt produces
positive outcomes for conservation (2005 – 2009).
• Assessing the population status and conservation threats
to chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) and other
mammal populations in the Madina oula, Pensely and
Soya forests of Southern Guinea
• Funded by: USFWS, CIFOR, USFS-STEWARD
• Focus on: Capacity building, biodiversity monitoring,
knowledge sharing with decision makers
• Tools: Workshops, line transects, interviews (hunters;
policy makers)

6. GUINEA SIERRA LEONE TRANSBOUNDARY PARK

7. DRAFT GAZETTEMENT PLAN AT DNEF

8. LAND USE ANALYSIS OF GAZETTEMENT PLAN

9. LAND USE ANALYSIS OF GAZETTEMENT PLAN

10. LAND USE ANALYSIS OF GAZETTEMENT PLAN
Planned Railway line for Rio Tinto
cutting across the Conservation
area.

11. BIOPHYSICAL DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Research Questions
• What are the distribution and relative
population sizes of wildlife populations across
the target landscape?
• What are the levels of threat and underlying /
explanatory factors to the observed status.
• What are the consequent management
priorities and implications for design of zoning
process?

12. BIOPHYSICAL DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Distribution of High Conservation Value Spp.
No Species IUCN Distribution
. Status
1 Pan troglodytes EN Bas Tamisso, Haut Tamisso, Pensely
verus and Soyah
2 Piliocolobus EN Bas Tamisso
badius
3 Papio papio NT Haut Tamisso, Pensely and Soyah
4 Pantera pardus NT Bas Tamisso

16. DISCUSSION
• Threats to wildlife populations, comprised commercial
hunting, habitat loss & fragmentation linked to livelihood
activities.
• Conservation status significantly affected by:
• Demographic / livelihood pressure
• Official status (e.g. gazettement)
• Existing management and institutional capacity
• Accessibility and proximity to urban centers / markets
• Draft gazettement plan is not realistic based on these
parameters
• Industrial and economic development are driving change
and constitute major threats to biodiversity
• What trade-offs needed and what evidence?

17. CONCLUSIONS
• Need to adopt an evidence based approach to decision
making for integrating conservation and livelihood
development.
• Complementary studies required to understand
demographics, livelihoods, institutions and governance
context.
• Integrating landscape and participatory NRM approaches
in the planning process should be key to finding a way
forward.
• Developing innovative tools and models for sustainable
landscape co-management that provide optimum
benefits to ecosystems and people (REDD+ / PES ??)

18. To achieve conservation and livelihood linkages in Africa we
need to consider the question: which stakeholder wants to
conserve what and for what purpose?