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

Country: Democratic Republic of Congo

Type and IUCN Category: National Park (IUCN category: II); UNESCO World Heritage Site (1984)

Size (hectares): 3,600,000

Date of creation: 30 November 1970

CARPE landscape: Salonga-Lukenie-Sankuru; RAPAC Pilot Site

Management plan: The Salonga National Park (SNP) has a draft management plan but it has not been formally approved.

Local communities: 700 mostly forest-dependent communities, with several hundred thousand inhabitants, reside within 50 km of the park (ICCN, 2014). 130,000 people live in the so-called ‘ Monkoto corridor’ (a narrow stretch of land separating the park’s two blocks) alone (ICCN, 2018). Despite the park’s fully protected status, two communities still live within its boundaries (Inogwabini, 2014):

The Yaelima, who belong to the Mongo group of Bantu people and reside exclusively in La Salonga. There are eight Iyaelima villages in the southeast of the park (Hopson, 2011; IUCN/PACO, 2010) counting about 2,653 people (ICCN, 2016). They settled in the park in the 19th century and were allowed to stay. Plans are under way to get them to voluntarily relocate (ICCN, 2018).
An estimated 5000-7000 Kitawalistes – from the political and religious movement Kitawala – live in the north-east of the Park (ICCN, 2016; IUCN/PACO, 2010).

Administration: The park is co-managed by the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), who signed a three-year agreement in August 2015 (See Salonga website).

Biodiversity information: The park is home to up to 40 percent of the world’s Bonobo population and many other endangered and rare species such as forest elephants, Congo peacocks, hippopotamuses and giant pangolins (IUCN/PACO, 2010).

Neighbouring and overlapping extractive industries (Mapping for Rights):

Three oil exploration permits directly overlap the park:

One concession (Block 3) held by Guernsey-owned COMICO, who gained presidential approval for oil exploration in February 2018, though the legality of the contract has been questioned (Global Witness, 2019).
One concession (Block 8) held by South-African company DIVINE INSPIRATION GROUP (DIG), for which a contract was approved in February 2019.
One concession (Block 9) held by SOCO.

Information available on funding:

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

Most of the current funding comes from the European Union, USAID and German development bank KfW (see Salonga website). Specific grants include:

Conservation and rural agriculture programme in the Salonga Complex (Programme Agricole Rural et de Conservation du Complexe Salonga – PARCCS) (2016-2022)
Funders: European Union under the 11th European Development Fund
Objective: Contribute to protecting the environmental capital of the Salonga Complex while enhancing economic benefits for local people
Grant Manager: WWF-DRC
Funds: €19,030,000 (OFAC)

Central Africa Forest Ecosystems Conservation (CAFEC) – Salonga Lukenie Sankuru Forest Landscape (2013-2019)
Funders: United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Central Africa Regional Programme for the Environment (CARPE)
Objective: Preservation of the Salonga-Lukenie-Sankuru Forest Landscape
Grant Manager: World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
Funds: $15,085,000 for the period 2013-2019 (USAID, 2013)

Biodiversity and Forest programme (Programme Biodiversité et Forêts, PBF) (2005-2018)
Funders: German Development bank KFW, German development agency GIZ and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Objective: Support biodiversity protection and sustainable forest management in DRC, while fostering local development.
Grant managers: MEDD, ICCN
Funds: $125,500,000 (Deutsche Zusammenarbeit, undated)(Amount dedicated to Salonga unknown)

Support to national policy on conservation and forest and biodiversity management (Appui à la politique nationale de conservation et gestion des forêts et biodiversité) (2009-2016)
Funders: European Union under ECOFAC and the 10th European Development Fund
Objective: Improve natural resource governance and biodiversity protection in DRC (protected areas of La Garamba, Virunga, Salonga, and l’Upemba)
Grant managers: Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MEDD)
Funds: €30,000,000 for DRC; €3,530,000 specifically for Salonga

Evaluating the impact of long-term field projects and anti-poaching patrols on local populations of bonobos: a bottom-up approach for evidence-based bonobo conservation (2014-2015)
Funders: United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
Objective: Evaluate the population density of bonobos and other wildlife and monitor the status of human encroachment activities in order to develop a conservation strategy for bonobos in a forest area of the buffer zone of Salonga National Park
Grant managers:
Funds: $53,170,00

Assessment and development of a modernised, extended network of protected areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2009-2014
Funder: WWF Germany
Objective: Development of bases for the planning, designation and improvement of a protected area network in the Congo Basin (target: 15% of the land area) with a focus on the biological diversity of forests, freshwater ecosystems and their functioning as carbon sinks.
Grant manager: The DRC Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Tourism (MECNT),
Congolese Wildlife Authority (Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature – ICCN), DRC Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
Funds: €1,990,000 across a network of protected areas in the DRC (Specific amount dedicated to La Salonga unknown).