Congo-Cameroon: what lasting solutions to the human-elephant conflict?

Devastation of crops, attacks against humans In Congo-Brazzaville and Cameroon as in many countries in the Congo Basin, cohabitation between humans and elephants is anything but peaceful coexistence. NGOs and public authorities are now selling on their feet in search of effective, but above all sustainable, solutions.

In Cameroon, the problem arises in the localities of Campo, in the south of the country bordering Equatorial Guinea, and Messok-Ngoyla in the east. These areas have been considered in recent years as epicenters of this conflictual coexistence between man and wild beasts.

The cause is the animals of the Campo Ma'an and Nki National Parks which abandon their natural spaces to enter the villages in search of food, destroying fields and plantations and sometimes even attacking humans.

Among the animals involved, elephants, rodents including hedgehogs and primates including gorillas and guenons. As if the leaves and wild fruits were not enough, these animals to meet their colossal food needs, attack human crops: banana trees, cassava, cocoa trees, pistachios, etc. Almost all crops now end up in their large stomachs.

Several factors are mentioned. The case of the increase in the animal population, the result of “successful” conservation, according to Nkouom Metchio Cyrus, municipal councilor of Ngoyla and the proximity to parks. “Which would push animals outside the limits of protected areas to go elsewhere, particularly to peasant plantations,” recalls the local elected official.

Congo-PNCD: Noah or the ark of the new insurance?

Identical situation in the Conkouati-Douli National Park (PNCD), in the Kouilou department, in the extreme southwest of Congo-Brazzaville.

Here, the approximately 30 villages in the Madingo-Kayes and Nzambi districts experience all the difficulty in the world cohabiting with wild animals including elephants. With a population estimated at nearly 1,000 individuals, pachyderms make incursions into human environments by devastating their agricultural operations.

Attacks against humans are also reported, such as the accident recorded last August in the village of Sialivakou (Nzambi district) where a female elephant disemboweled the hunter Ngoma-Loemba. Other attacks have claimed human lives.

But the lines seem to be moving. In particular thanks to protected agricultural zones (ZAP). Initiated by the French NGO Noé, the program consists of grouping households within a perimeter protected by an electric barrier. The first experiment was launched last December.

“For the moment, the fields of this ZAP are spared, since the elephants no longer enter this space,” says Alphonse Makosso, secretary general of this coastal locality. And Noé intends to extend the experience to other villages “especially if it continues to produce these positive results”, promises Modeste Makani, manager in charge of community development within the NGO established in 2021 after leaving three years previously, of the American WCS.

Congo-Odzala-Kokoua: the best shared experience in Central Africa

In Odzala-Kokoua National Park, the experiment with electric barriers through the “Elanga” project implemented by the American NGO Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is already starting to produce encouraging results. In Bomassa village, for example, 59 families now enjoy this anti-elephant fortress. “Before, we suffered for our plantations which were often devastated by elephants. With the arrival of the Elanga project, today in the Bomassa village we permanently have cassava, peanuts, bananas and many other fruit trees…” says Louise Ngouengué, a well-rounded sixty-something mother.

The Bomassa initiative was taken up in other localities in the Park such as Ntokou-Pikounda. At the level of the Central African sub-region, during the meeting of the three protected areas of Lobeké in Cameroon, Dzanga-Sangha in Central Africa and Nouabale Ndoki in Congo, held from June 7 to 11, 2022 in Bayanga (CAR), It was recommended that the Bomassa experience should be documented and then shared with other protected areas so that they too could see how they could, depending on their context, apply it.

Already at the level of the TRI-National Sangha (TNS), the process is underway. “We always receive calls and emails from friends of Djanga-Sangha with whom we share information on the Bomassa model, on the design that we are developing here. We receive a lot of calls and messages,” explains Cisquet.

This work was carried out with the support of the Rainforest Journalism Fund in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.