Intercommunality for more inclusive governance in the Sitatunga Valley

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by Martial KOUDERIN, Centre Régional de Recherche et d'Education pour un Développement Intégré (CREDI-ONG)

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CREDI-ONG

Since 2007, CREDI-ONG has initiated an ambitious project to create a community nature reserve in southern Benin. Awareness-raising and mobilization actions on the one hand, and lobbying and advocacy on the other, led to the successive issuance of communal decrees in 2010, 2015 and 2018 respectively for the communes of Abomey-Calavi, Sô-Ava and Zè in the Atlantic department. In short, the community nature park known as the Sitatunga Valley, named after an aquatic antelope, will have three birth certificates for a total area of around 80,000ha. With BIOPAMA's support, an inter-communal structure has been set up, and CREDI-ONG has been appointed as the technical body responsible for managing the park on behalf of the three owner communes.

Last update: 23 Aug 2023

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Context

Challenges addressed

Floods

Land and Forest degradation

Loss of Biodiversity

Shift of seasons

Erosion

Ecosystem loss

Poaching

Pollution (incl. eutrophication and litter)

Infrastructure development

Lack of access to long-term funding

Lack of food security

Lack of public and decision maker’s awareness

Poor monitoring and enforcement

Poor governance and participation

Unemployment / poverty

Scale of implementation

Local

Ecosystems

Wetland (swamp, marsh, peatland)

Theme

Biodiversity mainstreaming

Habitat fragmentation and degradation

Species management

Poaching and environmental crime

Adaptation

Disaster risk reduction

Mitigation

Ecosystem services

Restoration

Sustainable financing

Gender mainstreaming

Protected and conserved areas governance

Sustainable livelihoods

Local actors

Traditional knowledge

Land management

Protected and conserved areas management planning

Outreach & communications

Forest Management

Fisheries and aquaculture

Tourism

Pollution

Renewable energies

Waste management

Location

Zinvié, Atlantic, Benin

Benin

West and Central Africa

Impacts

With the introduction of the inter-communal system, a community council was set up, which now sets strategic directions and is the supreme governing body, with the status of an Établissement Public de Coopération Intercommunale (EPCI). CREDI-ONG has been officially mandated by the three communes to ensure the day-to-day management and operational implementation of the Nature Park's development and management plan. As a result, the communauté de commune will now have to make a budgetary allocation to CREDI-ONG to cover a minimum of its operating and personnel costs. In the context of decentralization, the State, through its locally elected representatives, is now playing its part and beginning to assume its responsibilities in the management of this community conservation area.

On a strategic and political level, it will now be easier to change the status of the area so that it is included in Benin's national register of protected areas.

On the environmental front, ecological monitoring and surveillance of the park will continue without waiting for projects.

On the economic front, structuring investments can now be made for the harmonized development of tourism. Green jobs will also be created at local level.