Human Landscape
Twenty-seven villages are located in or around the Lac Télé Community Reserve . The villagers depend heavily on its natural resources for fish, agriculture, construction materials, canoes, and medicines.
As the main stakeholders in this conservation effort, they play an important role in managing the natural resources of the reserve. Around 17,000 people live in and around Lac Télé Community Reserve, although population density is relatively low compared to many other regions and protected areas in the Congo Basin.
The Likouala region is well-known for its strong traditional institutions in which community work is both valued and practiced. Traditional territorial limits and land tenure rights are well established in the region and generally respected. However, in the absence of a regular conservation presence, previously held values regarding the existence of quotas for the offtake of fish and wildlife had been allowed to lapse.