Conservation Landscape for Peace
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The Global Conservati on Program Achievements and Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Support for Threats-based Conservati on at a Landscape and Seascape Scale Conservati on Landscape for Peace: Sustaining Wildlife, and Community Livelihoods in the Southern Sudan-Northern Uganda Transboundary Landscape Wildlife Conservation Society Southern Sudan-Northern Uganda Transboundary Landscape Key Achievements, Impacts and Lessons Learned Att ained with GCP Funding ............................................................... 2 Southern Sudan-Northern Uganda Transboundary Landscape, Project Highlights ............................................................. 2 GCP Program Background ............................................................................................................................................. 4 Locati on, Global Importance and Key Threats to this Landscape ................................................................................... 4 Unsustainable Hunti ng ........................................................................................................................................................ 7 Livestock & Wildlife Confl ict (Grazing, Water, Disease) ....................................................................................................... 7 Unsustainable Agriculture and Encroachment .................................................................................................................... 7 Lack of Informati on for Planning andManagement ............................................................................................................. 7 Lack of Capacity ................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Lack of Integrati on of Conservati on in Natural Resource Management Regulati ons and Planning ..................................... 8 Transboundary Insecurity ................................................................................................................................................. 11 The Wildlife Conservati on Society’s Historic and Current Roles in this Landscape ........................................................11 GoSS Support for Protected Area Management ................................................................................................................ 12 WCS’s Approach to Threats-based Conservati on at a Landscape Scale .........................................................................12 Administrati on ................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Security .............................................................................................................................................................................. 13 Box: Timeline of Armed Acti vity in the Imatong Area ........................................................................................................ 13 Accessibility ....................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Research Capacity .............................................................................................................................................................. 14 Sustainability ..............................................................................................................................................................15 Measures of Success ....................................................................................................................................................15 Major Measures of Success ............................................................................................................................................... 15 Value of the GCP Program............................................................................................................................................16 Front cover photograph: © P. Elkan; this page and back cover © L. Jackson Joseph Key Achievements, Impacts and Lessons important gradient in mountainous environments. Learned Att ained with GCP Funding An unsupervised classifi cati on of the Imatong Massif using a SPOT satellite image from February 25, 2008 formed the basis of a preliminary landcover uring the brief one year of project implementa- analysis and mapping. The landcover map was sub- ti on under this grant from USAID, the Wildlife sequently revised using fi eld survey informati on. Conservati on Society (WCS) and the Govern- D These surveys and landcover mapping yielded a ment of Southern Sudan (GoSS) were able to achieve strong base of knowledge which will inform future several signifi cant accomplishments under diffi cult management planning. fi eld conditi ons. • Landscape Planning Process Initi ated. The Ministry Southern Sudan-Northern Uganda Transboundary of Wildlife Conservati on and Tourism (MWCT), the Landscape, Project Highlights Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning and Environment of the • Aerial and Ground Surveys and Landcover Mapping. Government of Southern Sudan, and the Wildlife In 2009, an integrated survey of the Imatong Forest Conservati on Society convened a threats assess- Massif was undertaken by WCS, in close cooperati on ment workshop in August 2009 for the Kidepo, Im- with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the atong, Nimule, and Aloma areas along the border Ministry of Wildlife Conservati on and Tourism and region. These parti cipatory workshops have proved the Eastern Equatoria State authoriti es. The survey enormously useful in other WCS GCP landscapes as covered a total of 372 km, 172 km of which were they bring a range of stakeholders together, oft en covered by foot using the recce transect protocol for the fi rst ti me, to talk about what land uses are for data collecti on. Surveys were strati fi ed to repre- threatening the integrity and producti vity of natu- sent a range of alti tude zones, the ecologically most ral resources and jeopardizing the livelihoods of 2 natural resource dependent local communities. activity, WCS and the Ministry of Wildlife Conserva- Participants included some thirty wildlife and pro- tion and Tourism, with support from USAID, orga- tected areas management and forestry authorities nized a Law Enforcement Monitoring (LEM) train- from Nimule, Kidepo, and Imatong areas, state au- ing for senior officers of the Wildlife Forces (WF) in thorities from Eastern Equatoria and Central Equa- South Sudan. Participants in the LEM training were toria, and GoSS central ministry representatives. senior officers from the MWCT Wildlife Forces, rep- The workshop participants identified 4 important resenting a broad selection of different protected direct threats to the transboundary landscape and areas and administrative units, each of whom will an additional 11 threats that warranted some level be directly involved in and responsible for the im- of monitoring in case their impact increased in the plementation of LEM in the field. These staff direct future. Preliminary causal chains were developed wildlife law enforcement operations and manage for each key threat and priority strategies proposed patrol staff in the protected areas and throughout to provide incentives that might help change un- states of the region. This initial training introduced sustainable land and resource use practices. LEM as an important tool to record, evaluate and plan wildlife law enforcement efforts and ensure • Satellite Tracking of Transboundary Movement of the effectiveness of law enforcement personnel. Elephants. In early August 2009, a team of Ministry and WCS experts worked in Nimule Park to locate, • Support and Facilitation of Site-based Transbound- immobilize and collar four elephants (two adult ary Cooperation between the Government of females and two adult males) with radio/GPS/sat- Southern Sudan and the Government of Uganda. ellite tracking units. This was accomplished with WCS helped to establish a transboundary “site- the aerial support of a helicopter and WCS Cessna based” technical committee for each of the four aircraft. This undertaking will provide valuable in- transboundary protected area units and provided formation on elephant movements in an important technical support for pilot inter-governmental transboundary area. Data for the month of August cross–border surveillance activities at Nimule-Otze showed that the collared animals were primarily us- and Kidepo-Kidepo (including the provision of LEM ing a relatively lush area of the Nimule Park around field equipment). Today, at the site level, trans- the Nile River, with occasional forays into neighbor- boundary cooperation is well established, though ing Uganda. Results from Nimule will complement inter-governmental cooperation challenges remain information already being generated by WCS and at the central committee level. the MWCT from aerial surveys of wildlife, livestock, and land-use activity. This was the first time that • Creation of Audio and Video Programs to Raise animals have been collared and tracked in such a Public Awareness and Support for Conservation manner in Southern Sudan, and the work gener- and Natural Resource Management in the Trans- ated significant interest and media attention. This boundary Area and Elsewhere