WWF partnerships and alliances in the Green Heart of Africa

A web of alliances in the Congo River Basin

As one local saying here goes, “just one finger cannot pick up lice inside the hair”. In the conservation context, this means that one organization alone cannot achieve the goal of conservation in Central Africa.
This has become a kind of mantra for WWF, which is involved in a range of large regional partnerships. Following are a few examples.

Bushmeat Crisis Task Force (BCTF)

The BCTF, founded in 1999, is a consortium of conservation organizations and scientists dedicated to the conservation of wildlife populations threatened by commercial hunting for sale as meat.

The primary goals are to:
  • work with the general members of the BCTF to focus attention on the bushmeat crisis in Africa;
  • establish an information database and mechanisms for information sharing regarding the bushmeat issue;
  • facilitate engagement of African partners and stakeholders in addressing the bushmeat issue; and
  • promote collaborative decision-making, fund-raising and actions among the members and associates of the BCTF.
Visit the BCTF website

Central African World Heritage Forest Initiative (CAWHFI)

The Central African World Heritage Forest Initiative is an alliance composed of UNESCO and FAO, local governments and international conservation NGOs including Conservation International, ECOFAC, the Jane Goodall Institute, WCS and WWF.

The initiative aims to respond to the increasing threat of illegal hunting and unregulated bushmeat trade, using the World Heritage Sites instrument. This will be achieved by promoting and supporting the building of management regimes in blocks of outstanding forest protected areas which:
  • span more than one country in Central Africa; and
  • satisfy standards befitting World Heritage status.

The objectives are to combat illegal hunting and regulate bushmeat trade; strengthen law enforcement for the protection of selected protected areas, linking corridors and their buffer zones; and use the World Heritage image to improve protected areas management and long-term financing.

Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP)

On September 4, 2002, the United States and South Africa joined 27 public and private partners to launch the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. This new partnership was established to lend international support for achieving the stated Yaoundé Declaration goals.

The CBFP is a partnership composed of governmental and non-governmental organizations.

Its goal is to promote economic development, alleviate poverty, and improve governance and natural resource conservation through support for a network of protected areas and well-managed forestry concessions - and through assistance to communities that depend on the conservation of the outstanding forest and wildlife resources in the Congo Basin.
/ ©: CARPE
CARPE logo
© CARPE

Central African Regional Programme for the Environment (CARPE)

USAID’s CARPE is a 20-year regional initiative that began in 1995. The programme was created to increase knowledge of Central African forests and biodiversity and build institutional and human resources capacity in the region.

Phase II of CARPE has the goal to help establish sustainable natural resource management practices throughout Central Africa, thereby promoting sustainable economic development and alleviating poverty for the benefit of the people of the region and the global community.
Visit the CARPE website

World Bank/ WWF Alliance

This alliance is operational at a global level, including the Congo River Basin Forests.

Alliance work has included ongoing support of follow-up meetings to the Yaoundé Summit in 1999 and assistance for strengthening sustainable forest management in the existing protected areas in the Congo River Basin.

Studies of funding mechanisms have been carried out for sustainable financing of the Tri-Nationale de la Sangha, a complex of protected areas, and funding was provided for baseline assessments of protected areas in West and Central Africa.
Visit the World Bank/ WWF Alliance website

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