PAPFor

Human-wildlife conflict

Kristell — 2023-04-03T17:36:58Z

Human-elephant conflict (HEC) continues to be a threat to the conservation of the last remaining population of forest elephants across the WWZ landscape, estimated to be over 50 with new calves born in 2022.

Land conversion for agricultural purposes boosts HEC, as crop raiding events increase around forest blocks. Animals often destroy crop fields close to grazing sites and migratory routes, leading to reprisal by farmers, who trap or gun down the animals.

Poaching, bushmeat hunting and trade

Kristell — 2023-04-03T17:35:58Z

Although there are national and international laws that prohibit the capture and killing of protected species, traditional regulation has diminished and illegal hunting in the WWZ landscape poses serious challenges. Commercial hunting is prevalent in the landscape as some hunters and marketeers continue to trade in bushmeat, pangolin scales, elephant ivory and pets (chimpanzees).

This is a serious threat to protected species as hunters do not distinguish between protected and non-protected species. The project will work with FDA and local authorities to ensure wildlife laws governing the two countries, Liberia and Guinea, are well understood and adhered to.

Shifting agriculture

Kristell — 2023-04-03T17:34:43Z

There is a general perception among farmers that food crops grow well with an increase in yield only on farms made in the high forest with decades of deposit of organic matter in the soil. As a result, intact forest is cut down to be planted with crops for a few years, such as with rice then vegetables, then peanuts, before the land is abandoned or left fallow.

This practice is one of the major drivers of deforestation and the loss of critical habitat that was previously partly protected through local customary regulations (sacred forests), leading to the loss of the landscape's connectivity. Another underlying major factor is population growth, which puts increased pressure on forest habitat to be converted to agriculture.

Community engagement

Kristell — 2023-04-03T17:33:44Z

Recognising that many community members are aware of and actively aim to manage natural resources, communities can perceive conservation-related projects as a strategy to restrict their access to the natural resources on which they depend.

As a result, it becomes difficult in most cases for communities to accept a project as community-owned without tangible benefits. Involvement of the community in project planning and implementation phases, the introduction of genuine livelihood opportunities and the wider provision of basic socio-economic needs (good roads, health facilities, schools, safe drinking water,) would help to increase a sense of community ownership of the project and commitment to mutual goals of sustainable access to and use of natural resources and ecosystem services.