A new platform has just been launched for the management of natural resources in the Espace Tridom Interzone Congo (ETIC). This platform will involve local communities and indigenous people in the management of the Congolese part of the Tri-national zone of Dja-Odzala-Minkébé (TRIDOM)
A new initiative has just been launched to improve the management of natural resources in the Tridom Interzone Congo ETIC area, a joint conservation program set up by the Congolese government and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in the aim of improving the management of the Congolese part of the Tri-national zone of Dja-Odzala-Minkébé (TRIDOM).
A platform has just been set up to serve as a space for exchange, dialogue and the search for solutions to support ETIC’s natural resource management system. Particular emphasis will be placed on the Messok-Dja forest massif.
Jean Claude Nkounkou, the Planning and Environment Advisor within the local administration in North-eastern Congo says that, “The establishment of a governance platform with the involvement of local communities and indigenous people in the management of local development challenges us, since the program of activities of the departmental council takes into account participatory management.”
The Tridom Interzone Congo natural resource management platform will bring together local administrations, particularly in the districts of Sembé, Souanké and Ngbala in north-western Congo. The initiative will facilitate dialogue with local communities and indigenous people, collaboration with economic operators and civil society.
The Tri national du Dja-Odzala-Minkébé (TRIDOM) is a 178,000 km² cross-border forest that spans Cameroon, Congo and Gabon. The TRIDOM abounds in a very diverse biodiversity with a large population of forest elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, buffaloes or sitatunga (antelope).
But the Dja wildlife reserve in south-eastern Cameroon, the Odzala-Kokoua national park in north-western Congo and the Minkébé National park in north-eastern Gabon (which form the TRIDOM) are also known as being hubs for poaching forest elephants and other bush meats.
