STRENGTHENING VITAL SURVEILLANCE EFFORTS IN NIGER’S W NATIONAL PARK
During the end of 2022, regular monitoring within W National Park in Niger, part of the W-Arly-Pendjari Complex World Heritage site, showed a marked increase in illegal activities, including poaching, illegal logging, deliberate wildfires and incursions by armed militants. The Rapid Response Facility (RRF), a UNESCO World Heritage Centre and Fauna & Flora joint initiative providing small grants in emergency situations affecting biodiversity within natural World Heritage sites mobilized US$40,000 to assist addressing these acute threats.
The W-Arly-Pendjari Complex is a mosaic of nine protected areas spreading across three countries (Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger). Together these areas create the largest and most important continuum of terrestrial, semi-aquatic and aquatic ecosystems across in the West African savanna belt, providing vital habitat for a number of highly threatened species including the largest elephant population in West Africa, African manatee, cheetah, lion, leopard and topi antelope.
Credit: Wild Africa Conservation
The current security situation in W National Park in Niger is having a major impact on the effective management of this component of the W-Arly-Pendjari Complex World Heritage site, limiting the ability of government authorities and partners to undertake monitoring and protection activities. The current limited surveillance capacity has also prompted an acute increase of illegal activities, including poaching, illegal logging, deliberate wildfires.
As a means to reduce pressures and increase the protection of the park, the RRF has provided US$ 40,000 to Wild Africa Conservation (WAC) to strengthen monitoring in high-intensity poaching spots and establish a rapid response mechanism to address illegal activities.
Surveillance activities focused on the periphery areas of the park, identified as key access points for poachers. The funding deployed a camera trapping system (15 cameras) which enabled not only the collection key information on illegal activities (e.g., poaching, illegal logging, deliberate wildfires), but also recorded the presence of several wildlife species, such as the threatened Red-fronted Gazelle, which had not been spotted in the park since December 2022. The data collected by the camera trapping system provided a strong baseline to set up a surveillance system (486 km of river and 4160 km of ground patrols) which led to a decrease in illegal activities and eight arrests.
The RRF grant has also been instrumental in supporting the implementation of the park’s priority intervention plan by providing key resources and training to 65 rangers.
Credit: Wild Africa Conservation
Posted August 2023