CAFÉ News

The Board of Directors of BIOFUND approved at its last meeting an emergency plan of up to three million dollars to help mitigate the economic impacts of COVID-19 in the conservation sector. This support is intended to help maintain the jobs of up to 950 of the 1,600 rangers in the National System of Conservation Areas, so as to guarantee the preservation of the country’s biodiversity during a phase in which the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are seriously affecting the conservation sector.

The system of national parks and reserves is subject to various increasing pressures, resulting in manifest ecosystem degradation. In order to reverse this spiral of deterioration of our parks and reserves, the state of Côte d'Ivoire has undertaken, through Act No. 2002-102 of 11 February 2002, a legal reform with a view to ensuring better management of national parks and reserves.

The Madagascar Biodiversity Foundation (FAPBM) is changing its funding procedures to make them more effective and efficient. Funding has so far been provided on the basis of the size and pressures of each protected area. After analysis, it was found that the management capacity of each manager is also a determining criterion on the results obtained from the funding. It will now also be taken into account by the foundation.

Campo ma'an National Park (PNCM) is one of the major protected areas in Cameroon. It covers an area of 264 000 ha and has rich biodiversity. Its rich and varied fauna consists of key species such as the elephant, gorilla, chimpanzee, dwarf crocodile, Goliath frog, mandrill and Panther. Campo ma'an National Park was launched in 2019 with a project entitled "Conquering Old Fallow Land."

Just this April, Uganda Biodiversity Fund (UBF) gave a small grant of US$ 35,029 to Raising Gabdho Foundation Limited to carry out a project titled Green Clubs Energy Project in and around the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement. The goal of the project was to contribute towards Climate Change adaptation and resilience around Bugoma Central Forest Reserve. By the end of the project, it was hoped that the community would have adopted alternative sources of energy and energy efficient technologies.

The Batwa people of the Great Lakes Region of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo are part of a wider group of equatorial forest-dwelling peoples in Africa sometimes termed ‘Pygmies’. In the past four decades, the creation of national parks and protected forest areas in Uganda has resulted in the final expulsion of the Batwa communities from the forests which had been their home for centuries.