English - Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund

oads became impassable by 4 by 4 and the project had to be held until weather conditions and
roads improved. CEPF were informed of this delay by email on the 15/9/09. However, the delays
in fieldwork had repercussions in terms of both delaying and limiting the time available for data
analysis and report production. This project did not have its own vehicle and therefore relied upon
sharing vehicles allocated to other consultants working on other projects. Due to the distances
between different project sites it was difficult for the consultants to easily reconcile their needs,
often resulting in further delays in fieldwork.
Other lessons learned relevant to conservation community:
Change in the attitude of the local communities especially the primary resource users towards
hunting for and trade in wildlife requires a relatively long-term conservation investment as
confirmed by this project. At the Nimba Mountain in Guinea where a preliminary phase of work
aiming a delineating the dynamics of hunting and piloting alternative activities to provide proteins
and income to the primary stakeholders was undertaken prior to the current CEPF funding
pledge, it was relatively easy to consolidate and expand these initiatives to other localities.
In Sapo National Park in Liberia, it became clear when studying the successes and failures of
past livelihood interventions in the region that projects were frequently implemented without a
clear and nuanced understanding of the social, cultural and economic environment in which they
were being implemented, or without the framework in place to ensure longer term sustainability.
Problems identified ranged from no provisions made to support market access for goods
produced during the intervention, to the provision of equipment with no accompanying training as
to how to operate it. While there is appreciation that often it is difficult to leverage funding for
baseline and scoping studies, this study highlights the importance of a detailed and community
based project planning process in developing a successful and sustainable project.