AFRICAN INDABA

4    Anti-Poaching Campaign In The Niger Desert To Conserve The Last Hot Spot Of Saharan Biodiversity

Thomas Rabeil, Sahara Conservation Fund

As part of a major strategy to conserve Sahelo-Saharan wildlife, a large protected area of desert is being established in the Termit/Tin Toumma region of Niger in cooperation with the local population. Surveys carried out by the Termit project in Niger since 2006, have all confirmed that the Termit Massif and neighboring Tin Toumma desert are the most important remaining refuges for wildlife in the entire Sahara.

The Termit project in Niger was initiated by the Nigerian Government and CMS. The project is managed locally by the Sahara Conservation Fund, which co-funded the project with the European Union and the FFEM (Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial).

This area harbors several key Saharan species, such as Addax, Dama and Dorcas Gazelles, Barbary Sheep, Saharan Cheetah, Fennec, Striped Hyena, Nubian and Arabian Bustards and Spurred tortoises. However, the zone is suffering from a severe loss of biodiversity mainly due to hunting and poaching even in remote parts of the Sahara.

The Termit project is based on four inter-related components: Saharan biodiversity conservation; development of local communities; improvement of biological and socio-economical knowledge; information, communication and awareness. Within the component Saharan biodiversity conservation, anti-poaching campaigns are undertaken by regional patrols, including staff from the Ministry of Environment and the project. According to an agreement between the project and the Ministry drawn up in 2009, the campaign is managed by the project coordinator who is entitled to request agents any time from Zinder, Diffa and Agadez regions.

Meanwhile, the project has recruited and trained six community game wardens from the local population and two field-based coordinators. Traditional tribal and community leaders participated in the recruitment process in order to obtain their support. The wardens currently employed come from two neighboring areas inhabited by two different but related factions of Toubou: the Teda and the Daza. The initial focus of the work in these areas was on ecological monitoring that showed their high importance in terms of wildlife abundance and threats from poaching.

Each team, composed of three game wardens and a field-based coordinator, has been trained to communicate with and inform the local population about the project and its aims. Other duties include creating a network of observers within the local communities and to communicate information on illegal activities by satellite phone to the project and forest service staff.

In 2009 and 2010, six missions were undertaken dedicated to combat poaching based on information collected by the community game wardens and the network of observers. In 2009, the patrol stopped an important network of poachers operating in the western area of the future reserve with motorcycles from exporting bush meat — mainly Dorcas Gazelles and bustards — to markets in the towns of Tanout, Agadez and even Niamey, more than 1,500 km away.

In 2010, the anti-poaching campaigns did not achieve the same rate of success, with only a few local traditional hunters arrested. Although the campaigns have not eradicated poaching in the area, they have certainly decreased illegal activities for a while. The poachers are better and better equipped each time and the current number of campaigns does not meet the needs in the field for such a large area. Another kind of poaching was identified last year during the construction of an oil pipeline in the southern part of the future reserve. Community game wardens and local observers nowadays frequently report to the authorities on activities of workers of the Chinese oil company and soldiers in charge of their security.

With the reserve being established covering some 100,000 km², it is larger than Ireland or Portugal. one of the biggest challenges for the project is to multiply the number of anti-poaching campaigns and raise awareness of the different stakeholders in the area. The army instead of being part of the problem will participate in the anti-poaching campaigns this year to improve the efficiency of the regional patrols and minimize the loss of biodiversity in this last “Noah’s Ark” of the Sahara.