Africa’s wildlife park managers in Kigali to boost conservation

Officials are meeting in Kigali in a congress to expand the protection of land and marine wildlife in the region.

A general view of elephants grazing with a view of the snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro in the background
A general view of elephants grazing with a view of the snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro in the background at Kimana Sanctuary in Kimana, Kenya, on March 2, 2021 [Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP]

African officials are meeting as part of the continent’s first-ever Africa Protected Areas Congress in a bid to expand the preservation of land and marine wildlife, despite little funding and the low quality of many existing conservation areas in the region.

The forum is happening in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, this week.

Just 14 percent of Africa’s land and inland water ecosystems and 17 percent of coastal and marine areas are protected, according to United Nations estimates. The continent currently has 9,118 protected areas. More than 100 countries worldwide have ambitions to expand conservation efforts and protect wildlife from human-caused damages.

“Africa’s protected and conserved areas face serious issues that need to be addressed urgently,” said Ken Mwathe, policy coordinator for Birdlife International in Africa.

He said climate change, the decline in quality for protected areas due to underfunding and the growth of infrastructure development in protected areas are severely hampering biodiversity on the continent.

“The push for development in protected and other key biodiversity areas is one that governments and stakeholders should critically interrogate during the congress,” Mwathe said.

Those working on the front lines of conservation are already facing increasing challenges. On Kenya’s Wasini Island, where coral reefs and fish are protected by a community-managed marine park, conservation managers say it is difficult for these projects to succeed.

“Managing this local marine park is quite expensive for the community and requires a lot of external support,” said Dosa Mshenga, a member of the community that looks after the coral reefs. “However, it has a major positive side. Since we started coral restoration and watching the designated area around eight years ago, we have seen fish, octopus and even lobsters, which had disappeared, returning.”

But these gains are now threatened by the construction of a major fishing port in Shimoni, just three kilometres (1.9 miles) from the island, Mshenga said.

The Great Blue Wall Initiative — a project to protect marine life across Africa’s east coast — will play a prominent part in marine conservation discussions, alongside community-led projects like those in Wasini, said Luther Anukur, regional director of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which is hosting the conference. He added that local communities and Indigenous people will be at the forefront of conservation efforts.

“It is important to note that African people have not only lived alongside wildlife but have been its protectors, too,” Anukur said.

African governments have found themselves under increasing public pressure and international condemnation in recent weeks following evictions of Indigenous communities from conservation areas, with the Maasai in Tanzania appealing to the UN for better protections following violent confrontations that forced them to leave their ancestral homes in Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

The congress brings together wildlife parks and reserves managers, scientists, and Indigenous and community leaders. It is hoped that increasing the dialogue between groups will improve the health of Africa’s biodiversity hotspots and combat worrying trends, such as the increase in poaching and the illegal wildlife trade.

A high-level discussion on the link between climate change and biodiversity, with an emphasis on protected areas that can significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, will be central to the meeting, organiser Anukur added.

 

Source: AP