Community wildlife management in west africa : a regional overview

Abstract

This report is intended to be a West African contribution to a global study of IIED on community wildlife management issues. Its geographic focus is the 16 member countries of the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), including 9 francophone countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Ivory-Coast, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea,Togo), 5 anglophone countries (Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia) and 2 lusophone countries (Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde). This region has more than 200 million inhabitants. Eight (8) of the 16 countries concerned are part of the Sahelian region, and are members of the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS)1. The remaining ones are generally considered as being better endowed with natural resources (e.g. flora and fauna species, forests resources, water, etc.) because of their location in a semi-forest zone. However, desertification (known as a broad process of land degradation) has been reported to be affecting most forest countries also, and this might be the reason why except Liberia, all the 15 other countries of the region have ratified the International Convention to Combat Desertification. It should be noted also that Benin have tried to join CILSS these last years. Coastal erosion and deforestation are other serious problems affecting those forest countries on the Atlantic Coast. the combined action of drought, desertification, deforestation and population pressure, have widely depleted natural resources and wildlife.