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

Country: Republic of Congo

Type and IUCN Category: Community Reserve (IUCN category: VI). RAMSAR site.

Size (hectares): 438,960

Date of creation: 10 May 2001

CARPE landscape: Lac Télé-Lac Tumba landscape. It was designated as a Ramsar Site in 1998 and is also one of the RAPAC Pilot Sites.

Management plan: Not available online. It was reportedly under preparation in 2011 (PAPACO, 2011).

Local communities: According to an unpublished Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) census, over 16,000 people, grouped into 27 villages, live in and around the Lac Télé Community Reserve, all of whom heavily depend on the reserve’s natural resources (IUCN/PACO, 2012: 81 ; WCS Congo, 2007).

Administration: The reserve is administered by Agence Congolaise de la Faune et des Aires Protégées (ACFAP) under the umbrella of the Ministère de l’Economie Forestière et de Développement Durable (MEFDDE). Although Lac Télé is considered a ‘Community Reserve’ – the only one of its kind in the Republic of Congo – activities are controlled by the WCS (IUCN/PACO, 2012; IUCN/CARPE,2011).

Biodiversity information: Lac Télé Community Reserve contains one of the highest densities of western lowland gorillas in the region (WCS Congo , 2007). It is also home to forest elephants, chimpanzee, leopards, buffalos and more than 250 species of birds (PAPACO, 2011; IUCN/PACO, 2012).

Neighbouring and overlapping extractive industries (Mapping For Rights):

One logging concession borders the protected area: Loundoungou Toukoulaka, managed by Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB-Olam) since 2012

Information available on funding:

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

CARPE Phase III, “Central Africa Forest Ecosystems Conservation (CAFEC)”, Lac Télé-Lac Tumba Landscape (2014-2018)
Funders: USAID and Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI)
Grant manager: WCS
Objective: “To maintain the ecological integrity of the humid forest ecosystems of the Congo Basin through sustainable management of forests and reduction of threats to biodiversity” (USAID 2013).
Project area: Lac Télé-Lac Tumba Landscape
Funds: Between $9,540,000 and $11,200,000 from USAID and NICFI for landscape programme, plus matched funding (amounts unknown) from grant recipients WCS and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) (USAID 2013, CARPE 2014). Specific amount assigned to Lac Télé unknown.

Catalyzing Sustainable Forest Management in the Lake Tele-Lake Tumba (LTLT) Transboundary Wetland Landscape (approved in 2013 but according to publicly available data, project implementation has not yet started.)
Funders: The World Bank, via the Global Environment Facility (GEF)
Objective: To conserve biodiversity, ensure sustainable resource use and maintain carbon sink functions in the Congo Basin Swamp Forest and Wetland Landscape around Lake Tele and Lake Tumba
Project area: Lac Télé-Lac Tumba landscape
Funds: $2,100,000, with co-financing of $6,600,000 primarily from CARPE partners WCS and WWF ($5,000,000) and the Congolese government ($1,000,000). Specific amount assigned to Lac Télé unknown.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have also funded WCS to conserve great apes and forest elephants in the Lac Tele landscape, awarding a total of $727,273 between 2002 and 2014 (USFWS, 2014).

In 2010, the budget of the reserve was approximately $231,459 (FCFA 143 320 000). 74% of it came from USAID/CARPE, 20% from USFWS to cover the monitoring of large mammals and anti-poaching activities, and 6% from WCS (PAPACO, 2011).

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).