Nouabalé-Ndoki Buffer Zone
The Project for Ecosystem Management in the Nouabalé-Ndoki Periphery Area, or PROGEPP, also called the Buffer Zone project, is a partnership between the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Government of Congo, the logging company, Congolaise Industrielle du Bois (CIB), and local communities.
Initiated to protect the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park from increased demographic and hunting pressures associated with logging, the project enforces Congo hunting laws that protect endangered species. Unlike conversation of most protected areas, PROGEPP’s goal is not to reduce hunting to zero. Rather, the idea is to establish management systems that assure sustainable harvest of legally hunted species so that indigenous people have access to wild meat now and in the future.
PROGEPP has adopted a four-pronged strategy to protect biodiversity and manage wildlife in logging concessions. First, we collaborate with the government of Congo to enforce existing Congo wildlife laws, with the goal of protecting biodiversity and endangered species and keeping hunting at sustainable levels. Second, we work with communities to help them manage their own wildlife resources and to arm them with information about ecology and conservation. Third, we experiment with alternative activities to hunting to provide protein sources and alternative sources of income to local people. Fourth, we monitor the effects of logging on wildlife populations and biodiversity.
This is accomplished through the use of research methods to quantify bushmeat availability and consumption, wildlife populations, biodiversity, and ecological processes critical to forest regeneration. Monitoring results guide management decisions and aid in the formation of regional and national policy.