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Community Conservation

About 50,000 people, from Ouesso to Impfondo, rely mainly on natural resources, notably bushmeat and fish, as part of their diet, income and cultural identity. An estimated 3,000 tons of bushmeat are consumed yearly by those communities, making up to 75% of their meat intake.

To protect wildlife, it is necessary to ensure that Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities are strengthened in their rights of access to resources, and their sustainable use to guarantee their food security.

Innovative awareness-raising methods have led to the creation of local initiatives for the sustainable management of wildlife, through associations carrying out participatory monitoring of fishing and hunting catches.

We are also working alongside the government to provide better access to legal information and to revise the wildlife law to better suit communities needs and wildlife protection.

In parallel, we are working to diversify livelihoods and develop the poultry sector in the region, to offer alternative sources of proteins and incomes, while strengthening the private sector and entrepreneurship. Over 40 saving groups have been supported, as well as 400 subsidized micro-entreprises to foster various activities including commerce and farming.

Thanks to the expertise of the World Poultry Foundation, a new model of poultry farming has been fruitfully encouraged with the introduction of an improved dual purpose breed of chicken, producing both eggs and meat, more resistant to diseases, for a 33% reduced production cost.

Through the support to private veterinary services and hatching units, this poject intend on autonomising the production and rely on the private sector to create a profitable and sustainable market for locally produced chicken alleviating dependance to bushmeat for proteins.

Since 2019, the WCS has been piloting pioneering awareness campaigns to reduce urban demand for bushmeat in major urban metropolises of Central Africa including Pointe-Noire and Kinshasa.

Using targeted marketing to encourage behavior change, these campaigns are the ending piece of a “Forest to fork” strategy to reduce bushmeat consumption leading to overhunting and poaching.

Supported by influencers, those campaigns use TV, radio and public displays to encourage discovering local cuisine with alternatives to bushmeat, highlighting how demand from a growing population already estimated at 14 million people in Kinshasa and Brazzaville drive an unsustainable pressure on wildlife.

By fostering reduced urban demand for bushmeat, this project aims to limit the lure of profit for rural population that take risks to meet the demand in bushmeat, including health risks linked to an increased interface with species that are potential zoonotic reservoirs such as bats.