Difficulties in managing protected areas in the CAR

The 11% of the national territory devoted to the protection of fauna and flora demonstrates the will of the national authorities in favor of the preservation of the natural and biological heritage of the country. The creation of protected areas dates back to colonial times and continued until the 1990s.

Despite this desire, the management of the country's protected areas faces several problems, including:

• lack of financial, material and human resources. For example, it is necessary to point out a low ratio of forest wardens compared to the area of ​​intervention representing for all the areas 1 warden for 4257 km2. At the financial level, given the multiple military and political crises, the financial resources of the State are no longer able to cover the needs relating to the proper management of protected areas. Funds obtained through bilateral or multilateral cooperation are limited to less than 1/4 of all protected areas;
• insufficient knowledge and scientific databases relating to natural resources. Indeed, there is a crucial problem of expertise and infrastructure in terms of identification and multi-resource inventory at the level of the country's protected areas. It should be noted that there is a lack of knowledge of the country's biodiversity resources and therefore does not facilitate enough decision-making in favor of the exploitation and sustainable use of the country's bio-resources;
• Increased pressure on the hunting fauna, in particular due to significant poaching (local and foreign); and
• the absence of comprehensive environmental legislation. the only legislation in force concerns the forestry and wildlife code and that relating to mining. On the other hand, the sectors of water, fishing and halieutic resources do not have any.