conkouati_douli-description : Protected Areas in the Congo Basin: Failing both people and biodiversity?

Name: Conkouati-Douli National Park

Country: Republic of Congo

Type and IUCN Category: National Park (IUCN Category: II)

Size (hectares): 504,950

Date of creation: 14 August 1999 (Decree No. 99-136 bis). Some of the area covered by Conkouati-Douli was originally a faunal reserve created in 1980.

CARPE landscape: Gamba-Mayumba-Conkouati Landscape (CARPE Phase II). Not covered by CARPE III.

Management plan: Not publicly available. A five-year management plan was supposedly under development in 2007 (WSC Congo , 2007).

Local communities: Approximately 7,000 people live in the 28 villages that surround Conkouati-Douli National Park. Half of these are coastal villages in the District of Nzambi, and the other half are forest villages in the District of Madingo-Kayes. The coastal people are of Vili ethnic origin, a Bantu group of fishers and traders that settled there in the 13th century, whereas people from villages along the forest road come from various forest ethnic origins (WSC Congo , 2007 ). According to RFUK’s field work, these include indigenous Baka and Bangombe groups.

Administration: The area is managed by the Agence Congolaise de la Faune et des Aires Protégées (ACFAP) under the authority of the Ministry of Forest Economy and Sustainable Development (MEFFD), and with technical and financial support from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) since 2000.

Biodiversity information: Conkouati-Douli is one of the most ecologically diverse areas in the country and includes lagoons, mangroves, savannah, wetlands and mountainous zones. It is home to manatees, marine turtles, dolphins, whales, elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, mandrills and forest buffalos (WSC Congo , 2007). Conkouati-Douli is also listed as an Important Bird Area (BirdLife International, 2016)

Neighbouring and overlapping extractive industries (Mapping for Rights):

Two logging concessions border Conkouati-Douli National Park:

(1) Nanga, managed by Congolaise Industrielle de Transformation des Bois (CITB), the largest logging company in the country, since 2004; and
(2) Nkola, managed by Société Forestière Agricole Industrielle et Commerciale en Afrique Equatoriale since 2009.

Several mining permits surround and overlap the park.

Two oil permits also overlap the park: one in the south, managed by SNPC since 2005, and one on the western border of the park, managed by Ex-Phenix Marin (Gabon).

Information available on funding:

(Please note that some of these grants may be covering several protected areas or landscapes.)

According to WCS, current and previous major donors have included the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) / French Fund for Global Environment (FFEM) and other private funds (WSC website).

External funding amounts to 85% of the protected area’s budget, while the remaining 15% comes from a combination of government contributions, eco-tourism revenues and private funding. Monitoring activities represent the largest expenditure (IUCN/PACO 2012).

CARPE Phase II: “Central Africa Forest Ecosystems – Gamba-Mayumba-Conkouati Landscape” (2006-2011)
Funder: USAID
Objective: Central Africa’s transition to climate-resilient, low-emissions development accelerated through sustainable management of biodiverse forests
Grant manager: WCS
Project area: Gamba-Mayumba-Conkouati Landscape
Funds: No available information.

Between 2004 and 2014, the USFWS also supported conservation efforts in Conkouati-Douli by awarding more than $860,000 to WCS, with the aim of enhancing law enforcement and community outreach efforts in order to better protect great apes, forest elephants, and marine turtles (USFWS, 2014).

Category V and VI protected areas as landscape mechanisms to improve biodiversity on agricultural land, ecological connectivity and the implementation of REDD + measures, 2017-2020
Funder: IUCN (Switzerland)
Objective: Protecting the local development and nature conservation through the improved use of the protected area categories “protected landscapes / marine areas” and “protected areas with sustainable use of natural resources” in four different areas (Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana)
Funds: €4,288,983 across 4 countries (Specific amount dedicated to the Republic of Congo unknown).