AFRICAN
CONSERVATION AND WEB SITES FOR AFRICA FROM
AFRICANWEBSITES.NET
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The
Congo Basin
Forest Partnership (CBFP) is an association of 29 governmental and
nongovernmental organizations that works to improve
communication and coordination among its member organizations vis-à-vis
their projects, programs, and policies to promote sustainable management
of Congo Basin Forest ecosystems and wildlife and improve the lives of people
living in the region. CBFP does not itself implement or fund programs and
it has no
secretariat or staff. Instead, it provides a service to
donors and implementing agencies working in the region by operating as an
information clearinghouse, a mechanism for promoting coordination of programs
across multiple donors and implementing agencies, and a forum for dialogue.
CBFP aims to increase awareness of the programs being funded and implemented
by its member organizations, enhance the efficiency of these programs and
relevant coordination processes, and identify and eliminate gaps and overlaps
in programs and funding. In so doing, the Partnership hopes to encourage
potential donors to engage in the Congo Basin region and the crucial work
of protecting its globally important endowments of wildlife and biological
diversity, ensuring good governance, and raising the living standards of
its people.
The Bushmeat Project has been established to develop
and support community based partnerships that will
hel
p
the people of various African countries, to develop alternatives to unsustainable
bushmeat commerce. The programme is a long-term effort to provide economic
and social incentive to people to protect great apes and other endangered
wildlife. Some of the largest wildlife and animal welfare organizations in
North America have joined them in agreement that the Bushmeat Crisis is a
top priority concern and that it is time to act. Some of the largest wildlife
and animal welfare organizations in North America have joined them in agreement
that the Bushmeat Crisis is a top priority concern and that it is time to
act. To learn more about this effort
check the website
or email to hq@biosynergy.org. Donations
will be used to help turn poachers to protectors, educate people about the
intrinsic values of wildlife, and to create new protected areas in which
apes will be safe for people to study and observe.
Much of Africa's
habitat and its wildlife is threatened by overpopulation and unsustainable
use of natural resources
by poor people. Raptors are no exception; over 100 species
either breed in Africa or migrate there each winter from Europe and Asia.
Conservation of far ranging species like raptors and other migratory birds
presents special problems to biologists. How do we protect animals that range
so far and need widely dispersed habitats in which to survive?
The Peregrine
Fund's Pan Africa Program aims to establish projects throughout Africa
that train local people to do the studies needed to achieve conservation
of birds of prey and other species. The programme will bring biologists from
diverse countries and cultures together in a common effort to protect Africa's
natural resources. You can email The Peregrine Fund at
tpf@peregrinefund.org.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) (Headquartered
at the Bronx Zoo, U.S.A.), works to save wildlife and wild lands throughout
the world. For more than a century, WCS has inspired care for nature,
pioneered environmental education programmes
and helped sustain biological diversity. WCS supports programmes in
Africa to gather information on wildlife needs, train local conservation
professionals, and work with in-country staff to protect and manage wildlife
and wild areas for the future. For information on any of their current projects
in Gabon - detailed below - you can email them at
feedback@wcs.org :
Research and training for management of Lope Reserve
(WCS/ECOFAC).
Impacts of logging on forest flora and fauna.
Forest history and dynamics and their implications for management in Lope
Forest Reserve.
Mandrill ecology and ranging patterns (WCS/SEGC).
Use of plant genetics to map forest refuges (WCS/CARPE).
Ecology of forest buffalo in Lope Reserve.
Biodiversity of fishes in the Ogooue river
basin.
The
Rainforest Action Network
(RAN) works in various countries in Africa helping groups and
communities to protect their land and forests by allowing
their voices to be heard in the power institutions to which these local people
have no access. RAN focuses primarily on one of the many threats to Africa's
forests, those institutions and companies based in the industrialized countries
that are profiting immensely from Africa's riches, and leaving destruction
in their wake. RAN has confronted the World Bank and their role in creating
and dictating an economic framework that insures the continued exploitation
of the land at the expense of real sustainable development. They work most
closely with local groups who are willing
to risk confronting repressive governments and the foreign
companies with whom they work in order to protect their land and culture.
If you'd like to join RAN or find out what you can do to help, you can email
RAN at either rainforest@ran.org
or osani@ran.org.
The bushmeat crisis is
the most significant immediate threat to the future of wildlife populations
in Africa. Hunting of wildlife to meet people’s
demand for protein may still be sustainable in the few remaining
areas where population densities are less than 2 people/km2, trade routes
are poorly established, and human population growth rates are low. The scale
of the illegal, commercial bushmeat trade now occurring in Africa, however,
is driven by markets with large, rapidly-growing populations of consumers
and is considered by experts to be unsustainable. This commercial-scale trade
threatens the survival of numerous species as well as posing considerable
health and economic threats for future generations. The
Bushmeat Crisis Task
Force (BCTF), founded in 1999, is a consortium of conservation
organizations and professionals working throughout Africa and dedicated to
the conservation
of wildlife populations threatened by illegal, commercial
hunting of wildlife for sale as meat. The BCTF operates under the direction
of an elected Steering Committee and is funded by Supporting and Contributing
Members. BCTF's primary goals are to: a) work with the general members of
the BCTF to focus attention on the bushmeat crisis in Africa; b) establish
an information database and mechanisms for information sharing regarding
the bushmeat issue; c) facilitate engagement of African partners and stakeholders
in addressing the bushmeat issue; and d) promote collaborative decision-making,
fund-raising and actions among the members and associates of the BCTF. For
more information about the BCTF and the bushmeat issue, please
visit their website
or email them directly.
For more information on Gabon, please click
here.
If you would like to
contact us please email
terry@africanconservation.org
