VZCZCXRO2960
RR RUEHAST RUEHBZ RUEHDH RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHHM RUEHJO RUEHLN RUEHMA
RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHRN RUEHSL RUEHTM RUEHTRO
DE RUEHNJ #0461/01 2931527
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 201527Z OCT 09 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY NDJAMENA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7329
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEHZN/EST COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NDJAMENA 000461 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF/C, OES/PCI 
STATE PLEASE PASS USAID/AFRICA/SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (DAVID 
ATWOOD) 
ACCRA FOR REO (FISHMAN) AND FOR USAID/WA 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV TBIO EFIS EAID CD
SUBJECT: CHAD STEPS UP WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND PROTECTION 
 
NDJAMENA 00000461  001.3 OF 002 
 
 
REFTEL:  NDJAMENA 460 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1. This is the second of three cables on Chad's interest in 
environmental affairs.  The Republic of Chad is facing serious 
environmental challenges but working slowly to improve conditions 
and protect elephants from poaching at Zakouma, the country's 
flagship national park.  At the same time, recognizing the need for 
greater efforts to preserve Chad's rich tapestry of threatened and 
vulnerable species, the government plans to create a new national 
park by the end of 2009 along the border with Cameroon that will 
establish a large transboundary wildlife corridor between the 
countries.  END SUMMARY. 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
Recognizing the Need for Wildlife Conservation 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶2. Chad is blessed with a rich array of wildlife that includes 
elephants, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, antelopes and gazelles, 
wild buffalos and cattle, ostriches and Arabian bustards, migratory 
water birds, and manatees.  On October 7-8, officials from the 
Ministry of Environment and Aquatic Resources and representatives 
from wildlife conservation NGO APROCOFF (the Chadian Association for 
the Protection and Conservation of Fauna and Flora), told embassy 
officers and visiting West and Central Africa Regional Environmental 
Officer (REO) that the government was acutely aware of the need to 
protect and conserve Chad's endangered and vulnerable wildlife, 
especially in light of the intense period of elephant poaching from 
2007-2008 at Zakouma, the country's leading national park. 
 
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Saving the Zakouma Elephants 
---------------------------- 
 
¶3. Both Abakar Zougoulou , the Director of the Ministry of 
Environment's Forestry Department, which is responsible for 
establishing and maintaining national parks and protected reserves, 
and Hamdane Annadif, the President of APROCOFF, reflected on one 
recent improvement in Zakouma National Park, home to Chad's largest 
elephant population.  They acknowledged that the elephant population 
had dropped dramatically in the park, from an estimated 3,000 
elephants at the beginning of 2007, to as few as 619 elephants by 
the end of 2008.  (Note:  Aerial and photographic surveys of the 
park in 2005 estimated that there were at least 3,885 elephants in 
the park, a dramatically increased population due directly to the 
protection afford by the national park.) 
 
¶4. The Forestry Department Director attributed the 70-80 percent 
decline in the elephant population to an intense period of poaching 
in 2007-2008, as both Chadian and Sudanese poachers took advantage 
of regional and civil conflict and political instability to engage 
in rampant and widespread ivory poaching.  In addition to the 
widespread slaughter of elephants in Zakouma, poachers had killed 
seven park rangers and guards in 2007 and 2008 (the park's total 
complement of rangers and guards is 89).  He noted that poachers 
were taking ivory from Zakouma and transporting it overland through 
Sudan (via Geneina, El Fashir and Khartoum) to Nairobi, Kenya, where 
it was then mainly shipped from Mombasa, Kenya to Hong Kong, though 
a smaller quantity of Chadian-origin ivory was also being 
transferred from Kenya to Uganda and DRC. 
 
¶5. Despite the success, Zakouma's guards and rangers had been armed 
withrifles and ammunition, and received two motorized ehicles for 
conducting patrols, though patrols wre still primarily conducted on 
horseback.  Rangr ad guard coverage of the park was admittedly 
sill sparse, with only one ranger for every thirty quare 
kilometers of park land.  The park's limitd aerial resources were 
currently only used for counting wildlife, rather than for 
surveillance, protection and enforcement work. 
 
------------------------------------ 
New Transboundary Park with Cameroon 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶6. Officials and NGO representatives also stated that the government 
was working to create a third national park by the end of 2009, in 
addition to Chad's two existing national parks and seven protected 
reserves.  Once established, Sena-Oura National Park would protect 
11,000 hectares of wilderness that lie along the border with 
Cameroon.  The Chadian park would form a large trans-boundary 
wildlife corridor and protected area with Cameroon's Bouba-Djida 
National Park and would protect many of the same species as in 
 
NDJAMENA 00000461  002.3 OF 002 
 
 
Zakouma, as well as antelopes. 
 
¶7. The draft bill to establish the new park has been approved by the 
government and is on the legislative calendar to be adopted by the 
parliament before the end of 2009.  The effort to establish a larger 
transboundary protected area with Cameroon has been endorsed by 
COMIFAC (the Central African Forest Commission).  Likewise, the 
decision to establish the protected area was taken after extensive 
consultations and collaboration with local communities, according to 
the Forestry Director. 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶8. Chad will no doubt continue to face major challenges with 
protecting the elephants of Zakouma from ivory poachers and in 
standing up and effectively staffing a new park along the border 
with Cameroon. 
To date, however, the GOC has not provided the requisite level of 
budget resources to its national parks or wildlife preserves.  The 
Zakouma National Park was successful in providing a safehaven for 
the reconstitution of many species thank only to a massive and 
long-term funding effort on the part of the EU.  The second national 
park, Manda, suffers from neglect and exists in name only. 
 
¶9. Perhaps a growing awareness of the desirability to save Chad's 
wildlife heritage will result in the necessary budgetary resources 
for a third park.  In that case, the USG and other international 
donors could have additional real opportunities to engage more fully 
on projects with Chadian officials and NGO representatives on the 
best practices in wildlife conservation and protection.  END 
COMMENT. 
 
NIGRO