World Wildlife Fund

Central Africa’s forests are being logged at a rate that could wipe out more than 70 percent of its trees by 2040. These activities threaten highly localized endemic species and significantly reduce the region’s natural resiliency to climate change. Wildlife trade continues unabated with the poaching of elephants, great apes, tropical birds and fish.

WWF is working to restore ecological processes, reduce the human footprint and support local economies in the Congo Basin. We are focused on the following projects that present the best opportunities for altering the global markets that challenge the future of this magical place.

Creating sustainable forestry practices
The Congo Basin provides essential global ecological services by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide—a process that can slow the rate of global climate change. WWF is collaborating with local governments, timber and international lending institutions to open constructive dialogue and encourage best environmental practices. We are combining our fieldwork and policy work to promote adoption of Forest Stewardship Council certification standards.

Curbing the illegal bushmeat trade
The commercial bushmeat trade is the single greatest threat to wildlife in the Congo Basin. WWF is striving for a cessation of illegal hunting in protected areas and an end to the hunting of threatened species such as elephants and apes. WWF advocates sustainable hunting of less vulnerable species in buffer zones and community hunting reserves to encourage the survival of wildlife outside of protected areas, while providing affordable meat to a poor and growing human population. We are working to develop community-based fisheries that will help alleviate poverty and provide alternative sources of protein.

WWF is also helping to create employment opportunities in industries such as tourism and protected areas management. This will decrease local people's dependence on bushmeat as a source of income. We are working with local railways, trucking firms and airlines to discourage the commercial bushmeat trade. And we have convinced major logging firms Bordamur and Rougier and oil giant Shell Gabon to halt bushmeat hunting and trade on their concessions.

Balancing the conservation of an historic park with urgent human needs
Established in 1925 as Africa's first national park, Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo is home to more than half of the world's 700 remaining mountain gorillas. The area's fertile volcanic soils also support the highest human population density in Africa, causing huge pressure on the park.

Recently, continued fighting has intensified the environmental and humanitarian crisis. In spite of WWF's provision of emergency fuel wood supplies for people in temporary camps, pressures on nearby Virunga National Park are increasing. WWF continues to be active on the ground to reduce the environmental effects of this conflict and help meet humanitarian needs. In coordination with the United Nations, we are purchasing wood from private plantations to supply wood for cooking and shelter to the more than 375,000 people fleeing the war zone who have settled in and near Virunga National Park. 


To build long-term capacity, we are creating the next generation of protected area managers — not only staff but local people who have a stake in the protection of a high-biodiversity area. In addition, WWF is raising the environmental awareness of local communities and sharing skills to improve the management of natural resources around the park.


Saving the forest elephant
The Congo Basin is home to most of Africa's forest elephants, but poaching and range reduction pose an imminent threat to the elephants' future. WWF is supporting ecological monitoring of elephants through the MIKE - Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants - program. In the "elephant capital" of Dzanga Bai, over 3,000 individual elephants have been identified for long-term behavioral studies. WWF has led ambitious and often hazardous tagging expeditions to track and better protect elephants in locations such as Cameroon. WWF is also using its global reach to discourage the international trade in ivory, and a new regional TRAFFIC office slated to open in Cameroon will initiate studies of this and other illegal wildlife trade. Conflict with humans is also a problem for elephants - and humans. Small farmers can lose their entire crop - and sometimes their lives - in an elephant raid. WWF is monitoring interactions and training villagers to reduce conflict with elephants.


Protecting pristine forest from a foreign mega-mine
Northern Gabon contains some of the most intact rainforests in central Africa and the world. It is the Congo Basin's main stronghold for forest elephants and a reservoir for large populations of leopards, gorillas, chimpanzees and crowned eagles. However, the world's second largest iron ore mine is scheduled for construction in northern Gabon's Belinga hills. The planned development borders the Minkébé and Ivindo national parks, and the mine itself is located in a great ape priority site.

WWF is working with the government of Gabon, the Chinese mining company planning the development and the project's financial backers to foster constructive dialogue, provide technical advice and encourage mitigation measures. A new WWF network initiative is also building WWF China's capacity for action, and coordinating a worldwide response to China's growing ecological footprint in the region.