A Highly Decentralized Approach to Biodiversity Protection and Use: The Bangassou Dense Forest.

The project will test highly-decentralized and participatory approaches for sustainable management of the Bangassou Dense Forest region of southern CAR. This area has high species and ecosystem diversity, and an unusual blend of forest and savanna flora and fauna, including threatened populations of forest and savanna elephants, and the northernmost population of chimpanzees in central Africa. Fire, land-use changes and over-hunting are degrading the Bangassou ecosystems. The project will test community-based management approaches to make local resource use more sustainable, along with policy and tenure reform to protect and support local conservation.