| Grantee | Wildlife Conservation Soceity |
|---|---|
| Type | Protected Area Management |
| Grant Amount | $451,640 |
| Duration | 2 years |
Securing Lion Populations in Priority Protection Zones in the Central African Republic
A key component of the LRF strategy is to help catalyse conservation efforts in landscapes where there is currently little or no management presence. Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) were recently delegated the authority to manage a vast block of land in northern Central African Republic, including Bamingui-Bangoran National Park (10,700 km2) and Manovo-Gounda St Floris National Park (17,400 km2) and 4 faunal reserves. LRF granted $450,000 to WCS to help kickstart this project and to unlock several times that amount in matching funding. LRF funds will be used to support anti-poaching, other aspects of management and a basic ecological monitoring programme that will enable progress towards achieving lion recovery to be measured. Key threats to be tackled include poisoning of lions by nomadic herders and illegal hunting of prey species for bushmeat. The region is hyper-biodiverse and contains a mixture of both savannah and forest species and so LRF’s investment will help to protect a huge amount of collateral biodiversity.