Dja Rainforest Complex, Cameroon, 2021-22 Progress
Lying in the southern reaches of the Central African country of Cameroon, near the borders with Gabon and the Republic of the Congo, the Dja Rainforest Complex is one of the largest rainforests in Africa and the last major intact tropical forest in Cameroon.
Dja's vast primary forests are the last bastion for forest elephants’ survival in Cameroon. After losing over 200,000 forest elephants in the past 20 years, only a few thousand remain in the Congo Basin outside of Gabon.
Here, Global Conservation has entered into our first Global Park Defense project in Central Africa, where we are adressing critical threats to Dja Rainforest Complex in Cameroon, Minkébé National Park in Gabon, and their connected landscapes. Until now, protection of elephants in Dja has not been a priority – and some would say it’s almost too late. Our plan is to protect this forest and allow its elephant numbers to increase 30% in the next five years.
Initial Assessment
Global Conservation conducted an initial assessment in Dja in November and December 2021. This involved several field visits, discussions with staff, and random skills tests. The evaluation revealed the following:
Personnel
DBR has fewer than 60 ecoguards to date (compare to close to 100 four years ago) to patrol around 526,000 ha.
SMART System
The DBR management team, led by the DBR Conservator, has been intensively trained on the SMART approach and on how the tool could be utilized for a better management of reserve resources and assets. SMART patrol data are now held in a secure database that is being updated monthly by mission patrol data from the four Heads of Sectors and the Head of the Anti-Poaching Unit.
Report templates have been configured along with a mission report template created to deliver the results from SMART queries and summaries. To date, the core DBR staff are now confidently using the planning and reporting features of SMART to plan and define patrols targets (spatial, numeric, etc.) based on threats and intelligence.
Anti-Poaching
The Dja Ecoguards show good knowledge of anti-poaching and field skills with a focus on patrol approaches and formations, conflict management, human rights, field medical care, and basic intelligence-gathering gained from past training. Global Conservation will continue to provide on-the-job training support, including at least a quarterly visit to the four DBR sectors, to follow up on field activities in collaboration with other partners such as AWF and ZSL. A weekly supervisory call to all sector heads is made with the conservator to ensure patrols are moving along well according to SMART standards.
Threats
Poachers and wildlife traffickers are still operating in Dja Rainforest Complex and its wider periphery, extending to the border with Gabon using technological equipment such as satellite phones and GPS. These poachers are recruiting and arming economically disadvantaged individuals to carry out poaching activities for cash payments.
Poacher arrests are happening but most of them result in unsuccessful prosecutions, partly because protocols on criminal processes need to be strengthened. This is compounded by a perception among magistrates that wildlife crime is a low-level offence.
Rescued African gray parrots waiting for a medical check before quarantine.
Infrastructure
The Eastern and Southern sectors have very limited infrastructure to install a functional command room.
Three old (over 10 years) pickup trucks are available for coordination and team deployment in addition to motorbikes.
Better communication systems including internet and satellite are needed to actively engage the park in a strong SMART patrol-based approach that allows protected area rangers to rapidly assess poaching areas and efficiently communicate with managers.
Global Conservation has been working with a USFWS special agent in Gabon and other local partners to carry out a review of the intelligence management process that will include the simplification of data transmission, guidance on assessing the integrity of information, recording and handling as well as instructions on tradecraft, discreet operation and personal security.
Key Goals
Based on the above observations, over the next two years Global Conservation will be focusing on:
Building a regional program
Strengthening capacity (training, equipment) for site-based protection by law enforcement officers in the Dja complex
Increasing patrol coverage and frequency in important areas for wildlife
Enabling cross-border collaboration and information sharing to investigate and disrupt transnational wildlife trafficking
Engaging local communities in the fight against wildlife trafficking
Key Actions
Infrastructure development and GC support
Global Conservation has established its main operational base in Lomié, from where all the activities in GC target areas will be managed. The second operational base will be located at the Bedjabela river post along the Dja river in the south at 66km from Djoum town.
Bedjabela River Post.
For its headquarter in Lomié, GC, in collaboration with the Ministry of Forest and Wildlife, have completely renovated the Lomié building that was falling apart. This renovation included a complete change of the roofing system, flooring, plumbing, and painting.
Renovated headquarters.
Command Center and Control Room
A control room was established in the newly renovated building in Lomié. This control room is equipped with desks, screens, projectors and strategic maps and serves as command room from where all patrols and all missions to secure the Dja Rainforest Complex will be planned, piloted and debriefed. This room has significantly strengthened the park's deployment capacity allowing better and more secure patrol planning and management so far.
Equipment Acquisition and Donation
To facilitate the deployment of the team and data collection, the Dja Conservation Service was equipped with field equipment including 6 PDAs, 6 solar panel kits, 6 power banks, 1 laptop, 6 tents, 40 uniforms, 40 raincoats, 20 berets, 20 belts, 20 pairs of boots and 20 pairs of rainboots. We have provided maintenance to the rapid response vehicles and have reinforced the front body so that it can open the jungle without breaking down. Due to COVID and the Ukraine crisis it was difficult for the Yamaha main supplier in Cameroon to provide GC with a fiberglass boat for river patrols along the Dja River. However, we have invested in fixing the wooden boat for temporary use.
In February 2022, Dja received a donation of 20 Patagonia uniforms from the Thin Green Line Foundation and Global Conservation. According the to the park manager Oum Djock Gilbert, “This gift is very symbolic and shows that people appreciate the work we are doing and are happy to help. A big thanks to all who have been involved in this process”.
SMART Training
A total of three SMART training sessions were carried out over the last 6 months to ensure effective patrolling using the SMART approach. The first session took place in Meyonmessala (Western sector) from 20th to 23rd December 2021 to review site-based protection efforts, including patrolling systems and available resources.
The second session was carried out from the 8th to the 11th of February in Lomié on patrol briefing and debriefing procedures, field data collection, map reading, compass use, and GPS handling.
The third revisited modules such as installing SMART software, naming and describing the conservation area, creating user accounts, choosing a data model based on IUCN species and threats categories, defining spatial boundaries, creating stations and sector lists, defining participating organizations and ranks, creating and integrating employees, defining patrol teams, transport types, objectives and mandates. The senior staff was later drilled on queries to derive data metrics such as number of snares, number of hunting camps and number of wildlife signs. This third session took place in Lomie from 29th March 2022 to 1st April 2022.
We also provided on-the-ground training in GPS use, compass use, map reading and forest navigation in order to ensure teams respect itineraries and mission targets.
Tactical Refresher Training
Following intense training of Dja Wildife Reserve ecoguards by UK-based patrol training services providers (Retarius, Veterans 4 Wildlife. Etc), Global Conservation has embarked on a refresher training of all active ecoguards. With the help of a patrol consultant, all the lessons covered before such as basic field craft, patrols skills, conflict management and basic medical care covering key points such as human rights, leadership, physical training, methods of movement, hand signals, patrol formation, pacing, patrolling, packaging, sketches, unarmed self-defence, and first aid were rehearsed, and field practical missions were carried out.
Patrol Deployment
In order to deploy the Global Park Defense approach, Global Conservation have carried out in collaboration with ZSL and MINFOF an analysis of threats using data from SMART patrols and data from a recent Dja faunal inventory. Result suggested four main patrol priority areas to focus on in terms of addressing poaching threats through SMART patrols.
Patrol Routes Identification and Team Briefing
Boots on the ground is still the most effective form of anti-poaching and crime prevention in the Dja Rainforest Complex according to the surveillance plan. Based on a combination of a human activity intensity map, location of key wildlife areas to protect, and intelligence (from all sources), the coordination team decides the patrol routes, targets and mandates. This is followed by a briefing session during which all the instructions are given and the patrol procedure (planning, equipment, ration, etc.) is reviewed.
Provision of Satellite and Garmin InReach Units for Communication
In order to ensure patrol missions are safe, Global Conservation have provided additional InReach devices to the Dja conservation service for each patrol because mobile coverage in Lomié is unreliable for calls and even SMS. We have also provided a satellite solution for the manager to be available and connected to the internet as much as needed via a satellite modem. These two solutions are functional in Lomié and have been helping in case patrols teams get lost, injured and need rescuing, or in case they want to change routes (river flooding, suspect tracks, etc.). Over the last three months we have been testing these devices for issues related to coverage area, type of message or signal to be sent, capabilities of receiving messages, costs vs. benefits, lifespan of the device (especially the batteries), solar charging system, etc.
Patrol Deployment and Statistics in 2021
100 patrols completed by foot, vehicle, checkpoint and boat that covered 12,450km
67 suspects were arrested
25 firearms and 211 live ammunitions were confiscated
1,734 snares were dismantled
211 poaching camps were destroyed
8 bikes that were involved in the illegal wildlife trade were seized
Rapid Response Squad
Following the transfer of key members of the DBR Djoum rapid response squad team for security reasons due to their involvement in the seizures of over 316 ivory tusks in December 2017 and January 2018, Global Conservation and the conservation service are now progressively putting in place a replacement rapid response squad. Members of this rapid response team were selected out of a group of 30 ecoguards trained during the tactical patrol rehearsal in February 2022. The members of the rapid response were selected based on performance in their various sectors during the course of the year 2021. For this subset of specialized ecoguards, specific equipment for their deployment such as uniforms, belts, water bottles, cooking equipment, backpacks, and head torches were identified, and the procurement process has begun.
Judicial Follow-Up
In 2022, eight suspects have been arrested and two suspects linked to serious wildlife crime (killing a chimpanzee and mandril) around the DBR, and have been tried in court in Djoum. The next court session in Djoum about these two cases will be on the 21st of June 2022.
Maintaining the Dja-Greater TRIDOM Landscape Wildlife Corridor
A wildlife corridor is of utmost importance to every conservation landscape. The corridor serves as a pathway for migration of wildlife species to different parts of the landscape to enable them to interact and breed with individuals of different groups of their species. Protected areas without corridors means isolated wildlife, which can lead to inbreeding and possible extinction of vulnerable species.
Around the DBR, the corridor in the southeastern sector is the only remaining intact forest connecting the reserve to the greater Ngoyla complex and the the wider TRIDOM landscape. The necessity for monitoring and protection of this corridor was emphasized by the World Heritage Committee during the 43rd session at Baku, Azerbaijan. The 11th point of the decision requires actions to keep connectivity within landscapes. In response to this need, Global Conservation wants to work with the Cameroon government to develop a conservation model that benefits local communities. GC hopes to add two nearby concessions (201,000ha) to the protected area.
Exploring wildlife of key areas such as bais
Global Conservation have deployed eight camera traps in a newly discovered bai (a natural, often swampy clearing in the forest) in the Eastern sector. These cameras were randomly placed, albeit taking into consideration animal signs such as tracks and trails to determine placement. Photos and videos will be recorded for three months and used for communications and lobbying.
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