An upgrade and training workshop for custodians of protected areas in Cameroon, Chad, and CAR has just taken place in Ngaoundere.
An open secret is that the African elephant population is threatened. At a Ngaoundere training session on the management of biodiversity, the figures cited by trainers were sufficiently dissuasive and alarming on the future of the largest mammal.
In central Africa, elephant losses amounted to more than 60 percent over the past decade we have learned. According to a 1990 study by biologists based on IUCN data, over 20 percent of mammals, which includes elephants, are endangered. The ECCAS States do not want to sit back and enable the poachers. Joint initiatives exist. As proof, the Biodiversity Conservation Programme in Central Africa that focuses on saving elephants was established. In this perspective, early last week in Ngaoundere a three-day training to harmonize the response was held.
The agents in charge of the wildlife of Cameroon, CAR, and Chad were involved. Taking part in the session, Bladi Utman, former curator of Kalamaloué Park, and Andre Ndjida of the Waza Park in the far north region, shared their experiences with their neighbors in Sena Oura Park in southwest Chad.
It appears that the combination of procedures remains an emergency. It is in this sense that the program developed by the Central African States Economic Community (ECCAS) and funded by the African Development Bank (ADB) are now deployed. Eventually, it will stabilize the size of the population of savanna elephants in Cameroon and Chad. Similarly, it has been recommended to support the institutions responsible for the protection of fauna and flora in CAR. The advisory support and technical assistance from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) also contribute ultimately to developing an ecological monitoring program that will be reliable in protected areas.
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