Project oversight plays an important role in implementing lessons learned, and there is a constant flow of information between our team in Congo and the UK office. Beyond the core team access to other key professionals is also continuously available, such as our UK veterinary team, should their advice be needed. Setting effective baselines at the start of the project is an effective tool when evaluating progress. The project has no defined end date, and future planning is always under review. Information and data gained through oversight and evaluation are key elements of future planning.

Camera traps are an important tool for monitoring and gathering information, and have been used by the team for a number of years. More recently we have been able to train, and equip patrol teams in using the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART).

The original aim of the project was the reintroduction of Critically Endangered western lowland gorillas back to a protected area in the wild. Initially the project would enable the release of rehabilitated wild-born orphans, with captive-bred animals repatriated from the UK as the project progressed. Having a clear aim enabled the plan to be developed and that included, but was not limited to:

• Location and establishment of the protected area
• Legal requirements, including licences and permissions
• Staffing requirements, including training
• Animal care, including veterinary support
• Identification of threats & pressures and mitigation measures required
• Infrastructure required
• Local community impact and engagement
• Local community support through capacity building and alternative income streams
• Funding requirements, including capital expenditure and operating costs
• Reporting Structure
• Sustainability

Projects are not static, they evolve and bring about change. In addition they can be affected by outside factors. Once the project commenced it has been subject to regular assessment. As the project developed it has broadened in scope and adaptations have been made through continuous oversight of the activities in progress.

Effective collaboration with the relevant authorities in the Republic of Congo is a key element to the project. This is not limited to permission to carry out conservation work in country, but is also important for the long-term relationships required, including the joint patrols of the reserve and enforcement of laws and regulations that are essential for long-term management of a protected or conservation area. Team composition is also extremely important and the Aspinall Congo team are almost entirely Congolese.

The aim is to use nature-based interventions identified by the feasibility assessment to address sources of climate vulnerabilities. To do this, the community forest user group leadership mobilizes resources and people, and works with partner organizations identified in the feasibility assessment to access resources and technology. 

In Bishnupur, the women leaders of the community forest user group worked with RECOFTC to buy around 300 mango and lychee tree seedlings at subsidized rates from the regional horticulture development centre. RECOFTC provided beehives and training on beekeeping. 

To address water shortages and protect existing water sources, the community forest user group accessed technical and financial support from the government’s Bagmati Irrigation Project to install a deep well. RECOFTC and the community forest user group covered the shortfall in finance.  

To stabilize the riverbank, the user group members built a retaining wall of stones and sandbags topped with live bamboo and other plants along a kilometre stretch of the river. They planted 200 bamboo rhizomes and 4,000 fodder-crop seedlings from the District Forest Office and the District Soil Conservation Office, together with locally available fast-growing and multipurpose grass.

A feasibility assessment uses input from community forest user group members and other stakeholders to identify adaptation interventions.

First, community forest user group members and facilitators review the climate vulnerability assessment and the identified intervention topics. The assessment identifies at least three topics based on detected climate threats, vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities. Each topic is a broad adaptation strategy with actions. 

Then, facilitators use a template for evaluating topics to assist community forest user group members in seeking technical expertise, and collate information into a single ‘snapshot’ document to enable selection of a more detailed action. Facilitators can use the climate vulnerability assessment to draft information on existing livelihood assets in advance.

As a final step, facilitators work with community forest user group members to list expertise and experts for the intervention topics. Facilitators update the list, as needed, considering a broad range of stakeholders and service providers. Final matrices list response options under each topic, and are completed based on information target participants provide. This section may require gathering information from technical consultants and/or service providers.

Despite the strong dependence of the local economy on natural resources, the concept of ecosystem services is new to most of the actors intervening in the periphery of the Faro National Park.

  In addition, due to the lack of knowledge about natural processes, the loss of these resources has been noted, but their decline has often not been attributed to current practices.  Existing communal development plans focus on sectors such as water, agriculture and infrastructure, without taking into account the importance of ecosystem services.  A meeting and training enabled stakeholders from different sectors to discuss the challenges of conservation of ecosystem services and increase their knowledge in the field.

  In order to improve the process of drawing up plans and building the capacities of decision-makers at the local level, several workshops were organized with the aim of familiarizing actors with the “ecosystem services” approach and its application during the process.  planning.

Essential elements for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services for sustainable development are the equitable participation of stakeholders and the organizational development of local management associations.  The project has set up a stakeholder forum bringing together all the sectors involved in the park to identify areas of ecological, economic and social interest for which there is a will of the populations to protect and manage them.  Its mission is to manage conflicts related to the exploitation and conservation of natural resources, to promote the capacity building of actors, to encourage the emergence of research in the sustainable management of natural resources.  This forum has the technical support of the project for their organizational development as well as for technical and financial management, including the monitoring of the rules for the use of their resources.  These rules of use were drawn up in a participatory manner for each buffer zone.  To do this, a series of consultation sessions was organized for each village.

The transhumant conference is a consultation platform that brings together local and foreign transhumant pastoralists in order to discuss the resolution of conflicts between breeders - farmers, breeders - gamekeepers and wild animal breeders.

Call issued by the authorities to accredit guides and captains to work in Protected Areas.