lossi_animal_sanctuary-description
Country: Republic of Congo
Type and IUCN Category: Habitat/Species Management Area (IUCN Category IV)
Size (hectares): 35,000
Date of creation: 10 May 2001. The Lossi Sanctuary was a pilot experience where the local communities, the Mboko Alengui, after some years of work with the EU’s ECOFAC programme (Forest Ecosystems in Central Africa), asked for the creation of a sanctuary in 1996. (RFUK 2009: 11).
CARPE landscape: Dja-Odzala-Minkébé Tri-National (TRIDOM)
Management plan: A new management plan replacing the 2010 plan was validated in 2014 (Les dépêches de Brazzaville 2014: 3; PAPACO 2011:108). However, it isn’t publicly available.
Local communities: Several ethnic groups live around the sanctuary, mainly Mboko Alengui but also Mboko assi buya, Mboko assi Mabandza, Kota, Momgoms and Kola (Gami 2003: 18; RFUK 2009: 11).
Administration : The sanctuary is administered by the Ministry of Forestry and Sustainable Development (MEFDD) in collaboration with the local community of Lossi, represented by the Association of the customary landowners of Lossi (‘Association des Ayant Droits des Terres de Lossi’) and the EU’s Forest Ecosystems in Central Africa (ECOFAC) programme, with the objective of ensuring biodiversity conservation, participatory management by local communities, development of eco-tourism and support for scientific research (Mbété et al 2007). In February 2016, MEFDD signed an agreement with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on behalf of the Government of Republic of Congo to collaborate on biodiversity conservation in TRIDOM, as well as to create a protection corridor and new protected areas (MEFDD 2016).
Biodiversity information: The Lossi Wildlife Sanctuary’s forest is home to chimpanzees, leopards, bongos, and elephant, among others, with an important presence of gorillas (IUCN/PACO 2012: 15, 30-31).
Neighbouring and overlapping extractive industries (Mapping for Rights):
Logging concession Kelle-Mbomo, managed by Congo Dejia Wood Industry (China), has bordered the sanctuary since 2007 (IUCN/PACO 2012: 26).
Three mining concessions, managed by Mining Projet Development and Orion Mining Entreprises Inc., have overlapped and surrounded the protected area since 2005:
- (1) Kelle with prospection authorisation for iron;
- (2) Ngoybama–Lossi, with research authorisation for gold; and
- (3) Bondjidjouala, with prospection authorisation for iron (IUCN/PACO 2012: 25).
Information available on funding:
(Please note that some of these grants may be covering several protected areas or landscapes.)
Conservation and rational use of forest ecosystems in Central Africa – ECOFAC phases I to IV, (1992-2010)
Funder: European Union
Objective: Anti-poaching, maintenance and construction of infrastructures, research (ecological monitoring, socio-economic research), writing of management plans and institutional setting, implementation of alternative activities
Project area: Odzala-Kokoua and Lossi Wildlife Sanctuary
Funds: €108,200,000 [Specific amount dedicated to Lossi Wildlife Sanctuary unknown, though Mbété et al. (2007) report up to €4,000,000].
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).