In northern Central African Republic (CAR), the EU supports two national parks: World Heritage Site Gounda-St Floris and Biosphere Reserve Bamaingi Bangoran. Local communities were able to generate significant income from ‘village hunting zones’ set up in the late 1990s in areas peripheral to the parks to enable sustainable hunting activities in partnership with sport hunting operators. However, the collapse of the CAR state and progressive incursions of Sudanese and Chadian cattle herders have undermined these activities. Elephant poachers from Sudan have greatly reduced the elephant populations, while Janjaweed terrorists from Darfur and the various rebel factions involved in the CAR civil war have affected security in the area. EU support continues through the ECOFAUNE+ project, funded through the Bêkou trust fund. 

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In March 2017, I visited the ECOFAUNE+ project in northern CAR to collect stories, videos and photos. Below you will find a selection of my work.