Looking Forward – Plans for 2017

Eboyo farmer in compound garden

The Okapi Conservation Project (OCP) in 2017 will continue to work with onsite partners in building capacity for ICCN (Institute in Congo for the Conservation of Nature) wildlife rangers to improve protection and law enforcement in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve (OWR). OCP staff will help communities address the basic needs of food security, income generation, education, and health care which reinforces the positive relationship between communities and the role the Okapi Wildlife Reserve plays in improving their livelihoods. OCP will continue to supports the widows and families of OCP and ICCN staff that were killed in the line of duty.

OCP Major Objectives for 2017

• Conservation of Okapi and other Priority Species

Improve protection of okapi and other species (forest elephants, chimpanzees) by improving the capacity of ICCN to remove organized groups involved in poaching, mining, and logging from inside the Okapi Wildlife Reserve.  This will be facilitated by working with the German Biodiversity Forest Project (KfW) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to raise the level of performance and effectiveness of ICCN to control the OWR.

We will assist ICCN in improving patrol occurrences and coverage by supporting aerial censuses that identify sites of illegal activities with the goal of removing poachers and miners from inside Reserve boundaries. Field equipment will be upgraded; patrol posts water sources re-built and patrol occurrence and coverage increased to cover the entire OWR. OCP will continue to provide support for salaries, bonuses, medical care, patrol rations, fuel and transportation for ICCN guards and officers.  Patrol support is tied to results which are used to quantify effectiveness, determine patrol bonuses and fine-tune protection strategies.

Improved coverage by patrols and better law enforcement efforts at access points will give elephant and okapi populations time to recover and allow for better monitoring of wildlife by trained guards and OCP staff.  OCP is planning to expand its camera trap survey into key habitat types to help determine population trends for okapi and other species of wildlife found around previously disturbed areas.  To read more click here.

Okapi photo from one of OCP’s camera traps