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| Sangha Trinational |
Short Report
Located in the north-western Congo Bassin, where Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, the site consists of three successive national parks amounting to approximately 750,000 ha. Much of the site is affected by human activities and features a wide range of moist tropical forests with rich flora and fauna, including Nile crocodiles and goliath tigerfish, a large carnivores. Forest thinning support herbaceous species and Sangha is the home of large populations of forest elephants endangered western lowland gorillas, and endangered chimpanzee. The site environment has preserved the continuation of the ecological and evolutionary processes on a massive scale and large biodiversity, including many endangered species.
Wonderful Universal Importance
Sangha Trinational (TNS) is a cross-border protected complex in the North-west of the Congo Basin where Cameroon, the Central African Republic and the Republic of the Congo. TNS includes three successive national parks in total a legally defined area of 746,309 hectares. These are Lobéké National Park in Cameroon, Dzanga-Ndoki National Park in the Central African Republic and Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of the Congo. Dzanga-Ndoki National Park consists of two separate units. The parks are embedded in a much larger forest landscape, sometimes referred to as the TNS Landscape. A buffer zone of 1,787,950 hectares is located in recognition of the importance of the wider landscape and its inhabitants on the future of the property. The buffer zone inlcudes Dzanga-Sanga Forest Reserve in the Central African Republic, which provides the connection between the two units of Dzanga-Ndoki National Park.
Natural values and features include the permanent ecological and evolutionary processes in a predominantly intact forest landscape on a very large scale. Numerous and diverse habitats, including tropical forests consists of deciduous and evergreen species, a large diversity of wetlands, including swamp forests and periodically flooded forests and many types of forest thinning of large conservation continue to be connected to a landscape level. This mosaic of ecosystems ports viable populations of complete faunal and floral assemblages, including top predators and rare and endangered species, such as forest elephants, Gorillas, chimpanzees, and various antelope species, such as the East African Sitatunga'Es the characteristic Bongo.
The property is characterized by its large size, further supported by the very large buffer zone, minimum disruption for long periods and intactness and the continuation of the ecological and evolutionary processes on a large scale. This includes the continuous presence of viable populations and natural densities of wild game, including top predators and large mammals that are often affected by hunting and poaching elsewhere. There is a fully connected mosaic of very different habitats, such as different types of environmentally significant thinning of the forests attract large wildlife aggregation and countless species otherwise not found in the forest. Unlike many other forest protected areas, the property is not a remaining fragment but continues to be part of a much larger intact and landscape with good conservation perspective. This is becoming increasingly rare and important at the global level.
The property provides a wide spectrum of the species-rich humid tropical forests in Central Africa the Congo Basin and provides for the protection of a number of endangered species. The flora is enriched by species only in the many types of thinning of the forests. TNS protects a large number of tree species which strongly commercially exploited elsewhere, such as the endangered Mukulungu. Next To viable populations of forest elephants, important populations of the severely endangered Western lowland gorillas and the endangered chimpanzee is in and around the property, together with several endangered antelope species, such as the East African Sitatunga'Es the characteristic Bongo.
The boundries of the property coincide with the boundaries of three existing national parks to form a large and interconnected nature reserve in the heart of the wider TNS Landscape. The entire property is surrounded by a large buffer zone in all three countries which meet the complex ecological relationships between the property and the environment. This approach is an umbrella for regional planning and the integration of the legitimate livelihoods needs of local and indigenous communities with nature conservation within the broader TNS landscape. Logging and hunting is prohibited in the national parks. In addition to the remoteness of TNS adds a layer of protection against exploitation of natural resources. It is essential to ensure that the future activities in the buffer zones, such as forest and wildlife management, tourism, agriculture and infrastructure are fully compatible with the conservation objectives for TNS, so that the landscape will meet the needs of local and indigenous communities although it acts as a 'buffer' to the property.
Protection and management requirements
There are strong and dedicated joint management of the property which all three States which are party, an essential permanent requirement. The three national parks which are part of the property have all management and administrative staff by governments and, if necessary, be supplemented by international support of non-governmental organizations, as well as multilateral and bilateral agencies. Management, police, research, monitoring and tourism all require coordination of the national borders. There is a Trinational Control and Action Committee (Committee Trinational the Paragraph et d'Action), pooling of the three countries at ministerial level. A Trinational Monitoring Committee unites the three countries at the level of the regional authorities. These mechanisms are effective in providing a joint protection and management of the property, and will have to be taken.
The rights and the traditional livelihoods of local and indigenous peoples, such as the BaAkas, is a fundamental and still more recognized element in the management of the property. Whereas Lobéké National Park (Cameroon) use areas in the park, in the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo, local use of resources, including the native hunters and collectors, is not allowed in the protected areas which the local livelihoods and creating the potential for conflict. This illustrates the importance of an overall balance between nature conservation and local use of natural resources in the wider environment. The very extensive buffer zone is a chance to better understand and integrate the living need but also of the knowledge of local and indigenous communities under the umbrella of a live TNS landscape. The inscription on the World Heritage List offers a practical possibility for the States which are Party to translate a range of different obligations of the parties in respect of the rights of local and indigenous people in action on the ground.
The maintenance of the ecological values of the property will depend not just on enforcement of the law but in the end both the standards of commercial resource extraction in the buffer zone and the acceptance and support of parks by local and indigenous communities in the surrounding landscape.
Source:whc/unesco
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