The project targets five communities surrounding two intact secondary forests that provide a home for a number of key wildlife species, including the Western chimpanzee. These forests, amounting to 650 hectares, face pressures and are prone to deforestation due to slash and burn agriculture, ultimately threatening water security and wildlife. The Mobondah Community Chimpanzee Conservation Project aims to promote community-managed forestry in combination with wildlife conservation through a carefully designed programme that benefits communities, key wildlife species, and ecologically significant habitats.
Three of the five communities surrounding these forests have already begun to accept and actively participate in sustainable forestry practices by implementing woodlots, planting over 1,500 fast growing seedlings, serving as a non-forest dependent wood and timber source in collaboration with Tacugama and MAFFS. This project demonstrates the community?s commitment towards implementing solutions that protect their watershed and wildlife. In this context, the Global Environmental Facility can help to maintain this vigor and provide the resources to continue and expand sustainable practices.
This project proposes a 2 phase approach to implement watershed and wildlife protection. Phase 1 is to identify the current dispersal of corridors used by chimpanzees and other wildlife, and to understand current land uses. Phase 2 is to work with the communities to expand the existing corridors and to implement sustainable agriculture projects to mitigate deforestation while sustaining community income. The expansion of the corridor, coupled with a sustainable agriculture intends to improve the protection of wildlife and watersheds.