This paper presents an analysis of the costs of implementing a biodiversity conservation vision for the Niger Delta - Congo Basin Forest Region, a region covering the forests from Nigeria across ...Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea (EG), Gabon, Central African Republic (CAR), Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), based on an effectively managed and representative protected area network. The Niger Delta - Congo Basin Forest Region has an existing protected area system of about 135,000km^sup 2^. A system of effectively managed protected areas that would maintain a substantial part of the biodiversity would require an additional 76,000km^sup 2^ to be gazetted and an investment for the total system of over $1 billion (10^sup 9^). After this initial 10-year investment an estimated $87 million a year would be sufficient to maintain this system. Overall, current donor expenditure in the present network is probably less than $15 million per year, so over $800 million dollars will have to be found elsewhere. If the international community values the biodiversity of the Niger Delta - Congo Basin Forest Region, it is going to have to cover the cost of maintaining this biodiversity.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
This paper addresses the effect of human activities on the density of large mammals in the Dzanga‐Ndoki National Park and the adjacent Dzanga‐Sangha Reserve in the Central African Republic.
Between ...six and eight 20 km long permanent transects were walked on a monthly basis from January 1997 to August 1999 to assess large mammal populations as well as human intrusion. There were no obvious seasonal or monthly trends in elephant, gorilla or non‐human primate densities.
Overall, it appears that human activities negatively influence the distribution of most of the large forest animals in Dzanga‐Sangha. Elephants in particular were significantly less common in areas used by humans, but also other species such as non‐human primates showed lower densities closer to the main road and the town of Bayanga. This study confirms the findings of previous studies that roads have a negative impact on wildlife populations.
Results of this study stress the need for conservation of large uninterrupted forest blocks to maintain wildlife populations at normal levels. Simply creating roads, even within a protected Central African forest, is likely to have negative impacts on wildlife populations.
Résumé
Cet article s'intéresse aux effets des activités humaines sur la densité des grands mammifères dans le Parc National de Dzanga‐Ndoki et de la Réserve de Dzanga‐Sangha qui lui est contiguë, en République centrafricaine.
De janvier 1997 à août 1999, on a parcouru chaque mois de 6 à 8 transects permanents de 20 kilomètres de long pour faire une évaluation des populations de grands mammifères et aussi des intrusions humaines. On n'a constaté aucune tendance saisonnière ou mensuelle pour la densité des éléphants, des gorilles ou des autres primates.
Partout on constate que les activités humaines ont une influence négative sur la distribution de la plupart des gros animaux de forêt à Dzanga‐Sangha. Les éléphants étaient significativement moins communs dans les zones fréquentées par les hommes, mais d'autres espèces aussi, comme les primates, présentaient des densités moindres plus près de la route principale et de la ville de Bayanga. Cette étude confirme les résultats d'autres études qui avaient montré que les routes avaient un impact négatif sur les populations sauvages.
Les résultats de cette étude soulignent la nécessité de préserver de grands blocs forestiers continus pour garder les populations sauvages à leur niveau normal. Le simple fait de construire des routes, même au sein d'une forêt protégée d'Afrique centrale, est susceptible d'avoir un impact négatif sur les populations sauvages.
We monitored the impact of habituation for tourism through changes in gorillas' behavior during the habituation process at Bai Hokou (Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, Central African Republic) from August ...1996 to December 1999. From August 1998 onwards we focused on one gorilla group: the Munye. During the habituation process, it became increasingly easier to locate and to remain with the gorillas. Their initial reactions of aggression, fear and vocalization upon contact were replaced increasingly by ignoring us. Curiosity appeared to be an intermediate stage in the process. The way in which contacts with the Munye ended became more subdued over time. Regular daily contact is important in promoting habituation. Likewise, contacting gorillas while they are in a tree or in dense forest provides positive results compared to open habitat. Contacts within 10 m and contacts without forewarning the gorillas of observer presence, e.g., via tongue clacking, should be avoided. As of December 1999, habituation had progressed well; habituation of western gorillas is feasible. However, the gorillas experience negative effects during the habituation process, showing, for example, an increase in daily path length, and reactions of aggression, fear and vocalization upon contact. Impacts diminish over time. Given these and other potentially negative effects, the decision to begin habituation should not be taken lightly.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
This paper analyses the premise that revenues from tourism can provide economic sustainability for the management of both the Dzanga-Sangha Special Dense Forest Reserve and the Dzanga-Ndoki National ...Park,
both in the Central African Republic. Second, the paper examines the impact of tourism on the local economy. The results demonstrate that the present form of tourism has so far been unable to become self-financing.
In particular, if investments and depreciation are taken into account it becomes evident that private commercial financing of similar investments is unlikely to be viable. Tourism alone provides insufficient
revenue to cover the operating costs of the Park and Reserve. The impact of tourism on the local economy, however, is substantial. Revenue from tourism contributed to the acceptance of the Dzanga-Sangha
Project by the local population and has probably contributed to an increase in effectiveness of law enforcement. The Dzanga-Sangha Project tourism programme has at least been partially successful in providing
an alternative economic option to more environmentally destructive activities, but it needs to raise additional revenue. The Project should also pursue alternative funding mechanisms, such as trust funds,
and generate additional income through gorilla tourism, safari hunting and sustainable forestry.
The Central African Republic (CAR) has made an impressive commitment to biodiversity conservation, with a total of 15 protected areas covering about 10.9% of the country. This study critically ...examines the status of these protected areas in light of their potential for long-term protection of biodiversity. First of all, the protected area system does not protect a representative sample of the ecoregions of the CAR. Even more important is the fact that only 32% of the protected areas are adequately managed. Law-enforcement is inadequate, and poaching poses the largest threat to biodiversity conservation. Given the dim economic prospects, the CAR will need continued financial as well as technical assistance to deal with protected area management. Experiences have shown that such intervention can make a difference. However more attention needs to be given to capacity building, long-term funding mechanisms, regional collaboration and political commitment to make such interventions sustainable in the long-term.
This thesis investigates the potential role of tourism in the funding of protected area management in the Congo Basin. An assessment of the protected areas and gazetted forests of the Central African ...Republic (CAR) showed that only about one third of the protected areas is more or less effectively managed. Almost all the gazetted forest and the remainder of the protected areas are insufficiently protected from human disturbance, which is mostly in the form of poaching. This example underlines the fact that long term under-financing of the management has seriously affected the integrity of protected areas in the Congo Basin. Even in relatively well managed areas, such as the Dzanga-Sangha protected area complex, in southwestern CAR, human impact on wildlife can still be measured and is related to the distance from roads.The costs of management to effectively protect the forests of the Congo Basin are high. The potential role that tourism could play in raising revenue for management and for the local communities was investigated based on the case study of ape viewing in Dzanga-Sangha. Ape-viewing is a high return type of tourism and conditions to develop such tourism in Dzanga-Sangha were good. The area harbors high densities of western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and several previous studies on these apes had been carried out. In order for visitors to be able to view the apes they needed to be habituated to human presence. This thesis shows that habituation of gorillas for tourism is feasible. Although feasible, the habituation process requires a substantial investment in time and money and is not without risks. It is unlikely that tourism, including ape-viewing, will be economically viable from a commercial point of view. It is unlikely that revenue form tourism will cover the management cost of the Dzanga-Sangha protected area now or in the foreseeable future. Even though tourism can bring important gains to the region, such as revenue and employment, managers have to carefully weigh these advantages against the apes' well being and the risky economics of tourism in Central Africa.Given the fact that Dzanga-Sangha provides one of the best opportunities for this type of tourism in the Congo Basin and that even here the economic success is highly questionable, it is unlikely to be a realistic option in but a few exceptional places in this part of the world. This case study clearly demonstrates that although some user fees have the potential to generate substantial revenue for protected areas in the Congo Basin, these fees will be far from sufficient to manage the protected area system.
A Mo–V–Nb–Te–O oxidation catalyst has been imaged using scanning transmission electron microscopy at 780 K, which is slightly above its operating temperature. We observe a sublattice disordering of ...the corner-sharing octahedra forming the catalytic sites containing V
5+
while the edge-sharing pentagonal bipyramidal {Nb(Mo
5
)} sublattice remains structurally more rigid and thereby maintains the overall structural integrity of the catalyst. Imaging the termination of the edges of the 001 basal zones at room temperature reveal a preference for presence of a closed network of secondary structural {Nb(Mo)
5
} units providing further evidence of the stability of this sublattice structure. We propose that sublattice disordering of catalytic sites enables structural flexibility to accommodate different oxidation states during multistep chemical reactions within a more rigid superstructure and presents a new paradigm for compositionally and structurally complex catalysts.
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