Laurent Magloire Somé, Regional Representative of World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF, for the Central Africa Regional Programme Office, CARPO, in Yaounde, has said his institution can serve as a blueprint for anybody who wants to contribute to the success of conservation efforts in the region.

In an interview with The Post, Somé said it is not advisable to kill elephants as observed by some people, who argue that the elephant population is getting bigger across African. The WWF official thinks that local communities should rather benefit from their natural resources, which will have a positive spill-over on the national regional levels. Excerpts:

What are the challenges WWF CARPO is facing as they embark on nature conservation?

In Central Africa, the major threat is commercial bush meat, which is actually one activity that is going to empty out the beautiful forest that we have. Following this is logging. Logging is certainly a necessary thing for socio-economic development in this region; for national economies as well as local economies.

But when logging is not done sustainably, it can cause the degradation of the land and the beautiful forest. We do also experience, in the past years, what we call emerging issues like mining or infrastructural development in the likes of dam construction, iron or cobalt mining and more, especially in Cameroon. These are certainly particular needs for development in Cameroon and in the sub region in general.

The countries need that, the population too. It is very important that these kinds of activities are carried out in a very sustainable manner so that it doesn't end up with ecological disaster for these countries. If we don't manage the foundation we are growing and living on, it is going to be a short term benefit for us. What will tomorrow be for us, our sons and our daughters?

Some observers hold that the major obstacles to forest conservation are urbanisation and agriculture. What is your take on that?

Urbanisation, agriculture, I'll say yes!! We really don't know how fast and how important these allegations will be in Central Africa. There is a big question mark. Of course, it becomes a matter of concern. You don't know what is going to happen tomorrow.

Agriculture is certainly a very important thing to look at, particularly slash and burn. Industrial agriculture could be seen in some countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and to some extent Cameroon, also like a threat. It is something that could easily be planned and controlled.

The elephant population is said to be growing bigger. What are you doing to reduce it?

Not systematically killed yet!! The killing of elephants in South Africa is a very politically charged issue. A decision is not made yet, but are we victims of success of conservation efforts? We have to be quite bold enough to make sure that any decision that will be taken is not going to impact our minds, our behaviours. This is most important.

Are we going today, by taking the decision of killing elephants in the countries of Africa send the wrong message to people? For me and my organisation, this is something that we can understand about any move towards that. But we want people to be cautious. What is going to be the method that will be sent out there?

Does it mean that enough is enough? There are too many elephants, so we have to come back to zero? We don't think that it is the right question. We've to find a way to come to the best ecological response to it. So, that the carrying capacity of wildlife, be it elephants, rhinoceros and more are properly and scientifically recorded so that we can avoid sending the wrong message to those who for many years, have invested in saving these wildlife.

I've been working for more than a decade and very closely on conservation issues in Central Africa. There is still a lot to do, to address some governance issues, to make sure that the benefits generated from the exportation of natural resources are equitably shared with local communities.

Institutionally, we do have a framework that can work and guide individual countries, governments to make sure that they take the necessary strong action in preserving natural resources in Central Africa. We are a kind of blueprint for everybody who will want to contribute to conservation work in Central Africa.

There is the political will in Central Africa. We are seeing also the mobilisation of the international community through what we call the Congo-Basin Forest Partnership. This is certainly a good start and we hope this is going to channel more efforts in supporting conservation and development activities right from the bottom of the chain, which is the local community to the national level and to the regional level.