The Sangha River Trinational region, comprising protected areas of the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic is a precedent-setting initiative for the countries of the Central Africa sub-region. From an ecological and socioeconomic perspective the linkages among the three countries appear to be apparent with shared populations of forest wildlife and human populations as well as threats. Supported by protected area managers, international conservation and technical agencies, and national governments, the initiative has the potential, at the very least, to serve as a learning model—both positive and negative—for future regional transboundary natural resource management endeavors. Positive developments have already been observed vis-ŕ-vis collaborative antipoaching, ecological monitoring, and the winning of national government support. More difficult to quantify is the initiative’s impact, probably somewhat negative to date, on the already scarce resources of the existing conservation projects/protected areas.
If the Sangha River Trinational zone is to continue to evolve, future activities must grow to encompass (1) the development of a comprehensive strategy or vision statement; (2) based on this strategy or vision statement, the development of a Sangha River Trinational funding proposal, independent of existing project funding mechanisms, for submission to potential donor agencies; and (3) discussion and decision on the dilemma of having to come up with the appropriate structure for governing trinational activities while at the same time respecting individual project or protected area autonomy and national sovereignty.