Kakamoeka communities for the protection of gorillas in the Mayombe forest

Located in Loaka in the Kakamoeka district, about 150 km north-east of Pointe Noire, the project area, about 900 km ², is located in the middle of the primary forest of Kouilou-Mayombe and plays an ecological corridor role between two important protected areas: the Conkouati-Ndouli National Park (5,049 km²) and the Dimonika Biosphere Reserve (1,390 km²).

This forest is characterized by a great diversity of ecosystems and shelters among others western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla, CR), chimpanzees, (Pan troglodytes EN), elephants (Loxodonta africana cyclotis, VU), buffaloes, (Syncerus caffer nanus), panthers, (Panthera pardus, NT), bush pigs, (Potamocherus porcus).

Poaching is the main threat to gorilla populations whose flesh is traded and consumed as bushmeat in the surrounding villages and in the large towns nearby, mainly in Pointe-Noire. ESI Congo, a Congolese association that benefits from the support of a team of French volunteers, has already carried out a PPI project, which ended in 2013, which has provided good results by training former hunters to carry out transects for monitoring gorillas. who have created a cooperative and adopted a charter of commitment.

Inventories carried out in the area revealed a high density of gorillas estimated at 0.81 individuals / km². The objective of this project is to protect gorillas by reducing the hunting of protected species, specifically gorillas, and by rationalizing the hunting of common species by modifying behavior towards the hunting resource. The beneficiaries of this project are 500 people living from hunting.