The breakdown of traditional systems for managing forest and wildlife resources, combined with poverty in southern Burkina Faso, is driving local populations towards unsustainable exploitation practices for the last remaining plant and wildlife resources. The region’s natural vegetation and wildlife habitats are almost entirely limited to the single Gabia-Gao site (although this is already undergoing negative change due to shifting cultivation, particularly by migrant farmers). Wildlife has almost entirely disappeared. This is mainly due to disorderly agricultural encroachment, inappropriate management of burning practices, excessive logging, uncontrolled roaming of livestock, and unregulated, unsustainable hunting.
The project involves developing a 100,000-hectare Gabia-Gao community nature reserve, covering 40 villages and 100,000 inhabitants, which will serve as a wildlife protection and management zone, aiming to safeguard the site’s natural resources and contribute to the socio-economic development of populations living on its periphery.