English - Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund

Species Conserved: In both Liberia and Guinea, efforts were directed towards reducing hunting
and trapping of threatened wildlife species especially the 16 species considered to high
conservation importance locally and globally
Corridors Created: None
Describe the success or challenges of the project toward achieving its short-term and
long-term impact objectives.
This project has been extremely successful in achieving all of its short-term objectives. Whilst its
achievements of the long-term impacts in Sapo National Park are not possible to assess within
the implementation timeframe, the project is seen as an example of a pragmatic approach that
strives to reconcile the double need of biodiversity conservation and improving rural livelihoods.
In Nimba an important achievement of this project has been its ability to break barriers and
facilitate dialogue among all the stakeholders along the wildlife hunting and bushmeat trade
continuum. By openly and strategically offering to hunters and traders alternative options to the
bushmeat business and helping them along the line on how to organize themselves and carry out
their new activities in a productive and cost effective way, it is becoming less lucrative.
The challenge obviously has been how to break barriers and build trust among all the
stakeholders. Hunters in particular are a particularly difficult group of natural resource users not
only in Guinea and Liberia, but perhaps throughout Africa and probably beyond. Bringing them
into an open and transparent dialogue requires patience, perseverance and long term investment
to bring about change in their behavior. An ongoing challenge remain to keep the trust build
between them and the project for the double benefit of wildlife conservation and management and
the improvement of the living standards of the local people. It is about change in attitude and with
time, hunting for and trade in bushmeat will become a relatively marginal activity.
Were there any unexpected impacts (positive or negative)?
The project established baselines at the Nimba Mountains in Guinea for future change and
impact monitoring in biological and socio-economic terms. This included the monitoring of the
bushmeat trade in local markets, the monitoring of the relative abundance of wildlife species of
conservation significance along permanent transects established in the wild and the assessment
and monitoring of key indicators of poverty among the local communities directly or indirectly
affected by the project. Monitoring data are being collected and it should be possible in a
relatively short period of time of ascertain the trends in all the biological and socio-economic
indicators for adaptive management.
Project Components
Project Components: Please report on results by project component. Reporting should
reference specific products/deliverables from the approved project design and other relevant
information.
Component 1 Planned:
Document successful interventions in pilot community-based organisations (CBOs) at the Nimba
Mountain in Guinea, taking into account lessons learned from Tiwai, that focus on alternative
livelihoods as an alternative to hunting for, and trade in, bushmeat in this region.
Component 1 Actual at Completion:
Using a combination of tools including SWOT analysis, the three initial CBOs at the Nimba
Mountains in Guinea were comprehensively reviewed with the aim of drawing lessons and putting
in place a strategy for scaling up the project geographically and thematically. The lessons drawn