Central Africa

This situation analysis was undertaken to inform responses to several resolutions made at the 5th World Conservation Congress in 2012 about the plight of large vertebrates in West and Central Africa. It draws on a wide range of information to provide information on the status of these species, important sites, pressures, legislation, the effectiveness of protected areas, and both community-based incentives for conservation and institutional responses.

Central African elephant populations are faced with many threats including illegal killing, habitat loss and habitat fragmentation. Most conservation and management problems pertaining to elephant populations are common to all the countries of the sub-region and many important elephant populations straddle political boundaries of one or more Range States. Therefore, a sub-regional approach is needed to collectively address these problems.

La chasse de viande de brousse représente l’une des grandes menaces pour les écosystèmes forestiers mondiaux. Outre l’utilisation d’approches descendantes (telles que l’application des lois nationales sur la chasse), les projets visant à promouvoir de nouveaux moyens de subsistance ont été mis en œuvre à l’échelle communautaire dans le but de réduire la chasse à travers la fourniture de protéines et de revenus de remplacement de ceux fournis par la viande de brousse.

Bushmeat hunting represents one of the biggest threats to tropical forest ecosystems. In addition to the use of top-down approaches (such as the enforcement of national hunting laws), alternative livelihood projects have been implemented at the community level with the aim of reducing hunting through the provision of protein and income substitutes to wild meat. However, evidence of the impact of these projects on hunting practices and species populations has yet to be collated and r

The action plan lays out a conservation strategy for gorillas and chimpanzees in Western Equatorial Africa. The Endangered central chimpanzee Pan troglodytes troglodytes and the Critically Endangered western lowland gorilla Gorilla gorilla gorilla are undergoing a dramatic decline due to poaching, disease and habitat loss, driven by demands for bushmeat, a lack of law enforcement, by corruption, and by increased access to their once-remote habitat -- like the recent expansion of ind

Genetically, chimpanzees and gorillas are man's closest relative in the animal kingdom. No one in the western world would thus ever dream of eating their flesh. In Central Africa, however, ape- and monkey-meat is a welcome change to the menu.