Photo credit: Allard Blom/WWF
Since 2024, the GEF’s Global Biodiversity Framework Fund has moved from launch to full-speed operation, with seven projects already reviewed, approved, and funded, and dozens more in the pipeline. GBFF In Focus is a series showcasing how the new biodiversity fund is changing the game for how countries can invest in nature, starting with seven projects in Brazil, DRC, Gabon, Mexico, Peru, and a trinational project in the Congo Basin. These projects moved from concept approval to implementation in just six months, and stand out for their inclusive, integrated approach to building a more nature-positive future.
Protecting ecosystems often requires collaboration across borders. This is especially true for the Sangha Trinational (TNS) landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site – one of Central Africa’s most ecologically significant and intact forest regions, spanning Cameroon, Congo, and the Central African Republic. It is also home to Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) who rely on the forest for livelihoods and cultural preservation.
That’s why the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) project Strengthening transboundary conserved area management of the TNS is dedicated to ensuring the long-term well-being of this World Heritage Site and biodiversity hotspot, rich in cultural and traditional knowledge.
The Sangha Trinational landscape
Covering 4.4 million hectares, the TNS landscape is a vast forest complex that envelops three contiguous protected areas: Lobéké National Park in Cameroon, Dzanga Sangha Protected Areas in the Central African Republic, and Nouabalé Ndoki National Park in Congo. These lands are renowned for their pristine environment (70 percent virtually intact) and minimal human footprint. Within its natural forest clearings, known as bais and yangas, wildlife gathers in remarkable numbers and diversity.
Forest elephants, gorillas, bongos, and forest buffalos are frequent visitors. In Dzanga Bai, hundreds of elephants can be seen in a single day – a natural phenomenon found nowhere else on Earth. The peripheral zone just outside the protected areas includes production forests, hunting concessions, and rural settlements. About 55,000 people live in the area, of which 90 percent are Bantu and 10 percent Indigenous hunter-gatherers.
Despite its ecological and cultural importance, the TNS landscape faces ongoing threats, including deforestation, poaching, human-wildlife conflict, and socio-economic pressures on IPLCs. Addressing these challenges requires cooperation, sustainable financing, and commitment to ensuring that local communities benefit and thrive.
Background and funding
The first step toward this vision took place December 7, 2000, when the governments of Cameroon, Congo, and the Central African Republic signed a formal cooperation agreement to manage the TNS transboundary forest complex. It was the first landscape in the Congo Basin with such an agreement, recognized by the Central African Forest Commission, and it remains a model for transboundary protected area management in Central Africa.
In 2007, the Sangha Trinational Trust Fund was established under English law and registered as a foundation in 2008. The fund provides long-term funding for biodiversity conservation, sustainable management, and enhanced cooperation within the landscape. The initial endowment was established in 2010 with contributions from Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) and the Agence Française de Développement, with continued support from KfW. Today, the fund disburses 1.8 million euros annually, contributing towards the protected areas’ recurring costs.
Project goals
The GBFF project builds on this strong foundation to address key drivers of biodiversity loss by strengthening the Sangha Trinational Trust Fund's capacity and endowment and promoting more inclusive governance within the TNS landscape. Capitalization of the fund’s endowment will help ensure sustainable financing to support conservation activities and strengthen the capacity of IPLCs to participate in decision-making. Ultimately, this will support the three countries in achieving their protected areas targets under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Inclusive governance with local communities
For Indigenous Peoples in the TNS, forests are central to both livelihoods and cultural identity. They provide food, medicine, materials for handicrafts, and spaces for rituals and ancestral connections. Traditional knowledge, rooted in mobility and sustainable practices, reflects a deep understanding of forest resources.
Yet, across the TNS, Indigenous Peoples face systemic exclusion. Historical land appropriation from logging, mining, agriculture, and conservation has displaced many communities, subjected them to sedentary lifestyles, and limited access to traditional lands. Weak governance has further excluded them from decisions that directly affect their lives. Protected areas, often established without consultation or compensation, limit access to forests and, in some cases, force communities into illegal activities for survival. This had led to tensions with park authorities and human rights violations.
The GBFF project will help address these challenges by improving access to forest resources and equitable benefits for the 5,500 people living within the landscape.
During the project’s development, community consultations, including focus groups, meetings, and individual interviews were conducted to gather local perspectives. Participatory mapping enabled community members to identify culturally and ecologically significant issues important to them. These approaches helped ensure that the needs, vision, and participation of IPLCs were central to shaping the project and advancing sustainable and equitable conservation outcomes.
The project will support three civil society organizations (CSOs) to strengthen the capacities of IPLC associations and their networks to engage in protected area governance and environmental and social safeguards monitoring. These CSOs will receive funding to support grassroots work by IPLC and women representatives. Representatives from the Indigenous Peoples networks and the CSOs will also be included in the formal Project Steering Committee.
A broad partnership
The Sangha Trinational Trust Fund is the Lead Executing Agency, with administrative support from the International Union for Conservation of Nature Cameroon. World Wildlife Fund is the GEF Agency supporting this project. Key partners include the Government of Cameroon, Government of the Central African Republic, Government of Congo; the TNS Trinational Planning and Implementation Committee; and Wildlife Conservation Society. The Project Steering Committee will include the GEF political and operational focal points from the three countries, the President and Board of Directors of the Sangha Trinational Trust Fund, and representatives from IPLCs and CSOs to represent Indigenous Peoples’ interests and gender-related issues.
