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

Country: Democratic Republic of Congo

Type and IUCN Category: Faunal Reserve, IUCN category not reported

Size (hectares): 362,500

Date of creation: 28 June 2006

CARPE landscape: Maringa-Lopori-Wamba

Management plan: no comprehensive management plan is currently available, but an operational working plan has been renewed every year since 2009 (IUCN/PACO 2010: 104).

Local communities : Several ethnic and religious groups live around the reserve. These include the Ngombe, Kitiwalists and indigenous people (Yanggen et al. 2010: 31).

Administration : The reserve is administered by the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN). Conservation activities are managed by technical advisors from African Wildlife Foundation (AWF). The conservation objectives include the protection of wildlife in rainforest ecosystems, and the development of eco-tourism as a form of income generation. There is no active management of ecosystems, and the reserve doesn’t have enough staff for key management activities. However, in 2010, AWF and ICCN conducted wildlife and habitat monitoring (IUCN/PACO 2010: 104).

Biodiversity information : Lomako-Yokokala is well known for its bonobo population. The forest elephant, the bongo, the golden cat, the giant pangolin and the Congo peafowl are also present in the reserve (IUCN/PACO 2010: 19, 35).

Neighbouring and overlapping extractive industries (Mapping for Rights):

Two logging concessions border the reserve: concessions 026/04 and 027/04 (managed by SIFORCO since 2004).

One oil concession (no. 04) has overlapped the reserve since 2013.

Information available on funding:

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

AWF provides a budget of about US$12,600 (IUCN/PACO 2010: 104).

Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment Phase III (CARPE III), 2013-2018
Funder: USAID
Objective: Conservation of the Maringa-Lopori-Wamba landscape, notably through the improvement of the Lomako-Yokokala Faunal Reserve’s existing management, and collaboration with communities in the corridor area connecting Lomako and Iyondji Reserves to develop micro-level, community-based land use plans.
Grant Manager: AWF
Funds: US$15,100,000 (specific amount dedicated to the Lomako-Yokokala Faunal Reserve unknown).

Community management of biodiversity in the forest of Lomako and its periphery (Gestion communautaire de la biodiversité de la forêt de Lomako et de sa périphérie), 2007-2011
Funder: USAID, French Global Environment Facility (FFEM) and others
Objective: Support of the reserve’s conservation efforts through capacity building, creating local surveillance brigades, developing eco-tourism activities and finding alternatives to bushmeat hunting. Implement sustainable management of natural resources in the reserve’s periphery.
Grant managers: French Fund for Global Environment (FFEM)
Funds: €3,171,000 (USAID: €2,000,000; FFEM: €781,000; others: €390,000).