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

Country: Cameroon

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

Size (hectares): 126,000

Date of creation: 30 October 1986. It includes the former Korup Forest Reserve, established under British mandate in the 1930s.

CARPE landscape: Not part of a CARPE landscape

Management plan: Korup National Park is managed as part of the Government Program for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources [PSMNR] (Mbile, 2015). The first management plan covered a five-year period from 2002 to 2007. A second management plan was implemented from 2009-2013 (WWF Coastal Forests Programme, 2014). Neither past nor current (2015-2019) management plans are publicly available.

Local communities: In 2014, the park and peripheral zone included 32 villages (five in-park and 27 peripheral villages), some of which are less than 500 metres to the park boundary. The population of between 5,000-6,000 inhabitants depends almost exclusively on the park and peripheral zone resources for subsistence (WWF Coastal Forests Programme, 2014: 2-3; PSMNR-SWR, 2014).

The five in-park villages belong to three ethnic groups, the Korup (Erat), the Bakoko clan of Oroko (Ikenge, Bera and Esukutan) and the Batanga clan of Oroko (Bareka-Batanga) (Astaras, 2009).

Surveys show that many, if not all, of the villages located within the park and within three kilometres from its boundary claim traditional rights to land and natural resources within the Park itself (Francis, 2010)

Administration: The park is managed by the Cameroon Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF) with technical advice from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) (Rautkari, 2009).

Biodiversity information: Korup National Park is considered a coastal forest, part of the Guinean-Congolian forest refugium (Mbile, 200 9: 161). Endangered species are present in the park such as elephants, leopards and chimpanzees (UNESCO, 2016). Korup National Park contains one quarter of all Africa’s primate species and represents a particularly important site for primate conservation. In ornithological terms it is reputedly the most diverse lowland site in Africa with a total of 4,103 bird species recorded so far. Korup also contains 82 reptiles and 92 amphibians, a number of them endemic to the area (Bobo et al, 201 5).

Neighbouring and overlapping extractive industries (Mapping for Rights):

Two logging concessions border the national park:

(1) concession 11-001 managed by TRC since 2006;
(2) concession 11-005 managed by national timber company CAFECO since 2006.

Information available on funding:

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

According to Schmidt-Soltau (2002a: 1), between 1988 and 2000, more than €15,000,000 were spent on the park, amounting to one of the highest conservation budgets (measured in euros per square kilometre) in Africa. The funding was provided by several donors including the UK Department for International Development (DFID), WWF, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the European Union, the German government via the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) and the government-owned development bank (KfW), as well as the US government.

Specific Projects:

Program for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources (PSMNR) (2006 – 2016)
Funder: Government of Germany via GTZ, KfW and the German development Service (DED)
Objective: The program aims at ensuring both the conservation of high value ecosystems and endangered species as well as socio-economic development of adjacent communities in and around Mt. Cameroon (Bomboko Forest Reserve, Korup National Park, Takamanda and Mone Forests) and the improvement of the livelihood situation of local communities.
Grant Manager: Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF)
Funds: No available information

Korup National Park Project (1984 – 2009)
Funder: WWF UK through the Department for International Development (DfID) (1986 – 2009); European Union (1993 – 2009)
Objective: The project is designed to protect and manage the national park and integrate it into the local economy and regional development plans
Grant Manager: WWF
Funds: No available information

Drill (Mandrillus leocophaeus) Ecology and Conservation Status in Korup National Park, Southwest Cameroon (2007)
Funder : WCS ; Columbus Zoo and Aquarium ; Smithsonian Institute’s Centre for Tropical Forest Science ; Conservation International ; Primate Society of Great Britain ; American Society of Primatologists ; Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation
Objective: Research
Grant Manager: No available information
Funds: No available information

Forest and Environment Programme, 2016-2019
Funder: GIZ
Objective: The Forest and Environment Ministry, including their decentralized structures, shall exercise their mandate coordinated and made with other relevant actors.
Grant manager: COMIFAC, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Cameroonian Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF), and the Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development (MINEPDED)
Funds: €22 000 000 across Cameroon (amount dedicated to each National Park unknown)

Partnership against Poaching and the Illegal Wildlife Trade Ivory and Rhino Horn) in Africa and Asia, 2017-2020
Funder: GIZ
Objective:Improving the fight against poaching (across sectors, borders and continents).
Grant manager: COMIFAC, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Implementation on the ground through Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network (TRAFFIC), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Global Nature Fund (GNF)
Funds: €8 750 000 across Africa and Asia (amount dedicated to each country/National Park unknown)

Programme for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources in the South West Region of Cameroon (PSMNR-SWR), 2011-2018
Funder: KfW Development Bank, GIZ, BMZ, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
Objective: The project aims at the conservation of high-quality ecosystems and the sustainable improvement of the living conditions of the population. The interventions in the second and third phase of the project will focus on collaborative protected area management, together with the development and implementation of strategies to ensure equal treatment of conservation and development / poverty reduction through infrastructure and agricultural support measures, and support a more sustainable management of forestry concessions, community and village forests.
Grant manager: The regional delegation of the Ministry for Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF), supported by the GFA Consulting Group
Funds: €25 000 000 across Southwest Cameroon (Korup, Mt Cameroon, Banyang-Mbo and Takamanda National Parks) from KfW (1 & 2) (Specific amount dedicated to Korup National Park unknown).