The protection of Africa's large mammals is often associated with an image of vast parks from which practically any form of human presence has been banished. This model nevertheless has its limits. In certain regions, neither the creation of parks nor wildlife observation tourism is in a position to ensure the survival of the species or the sustainability of the ecosystems. And it is from there which this iconoclastic idea springs, put into practice by the Management of Natural Environment and Forestry Resources Unit at Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech (ULg): in betting on cynegetic  tourism, we can both save species close to extinction and help in the development of the poorest village communities. In the Central African Republic this concept has already gained incontestable successes.

Seen from Europe, the northern region of the Central African Republic (CAR) might resemble a paradise on Earth, with its vast stretches of shrub savannah and the inevitable clichés which are attached to it: elephants, buffalos, antelopes, giraffes, etc. A mistake! Three to four times larger than Belgium, this region, amongst the least populated in Africa, for a long time fed the slave trade. It has served as a refuge – and this is still widely the case – for the despairing populations and the military factions tied to the coups d'états and the tragedies which have struck the countries bordering it: Chad and Sudan (Darfur). The pictures of peaceful farmers and traditional hunters are no more than tarnished and naïve stereotypical images. The great drought which struck the Sahalian strip in the 1970s brought about vast transhumance movements towards the south by breeders looking for better grazing land for their herds of goats and cattle.

Political instability, climatic or ecological problems and demographic movements: such a cocktail rarely proves beneficial, either for human beings or animals. It will thus not be a surprise that the last forty years, marked by the uncontrolled proliferation of light automatic weapons, have given rise to traffic in ivory and a proliferation in poaching. A tough blow for the wildlife! We knew already that the black rhinoceros, for example, had violently disappeared from the region in 1986. But, thanks to the work of Philippe Bouché, a doctorate student at the Management of Natural Environment and Forestry Resources Unit at Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech (ULg) and Head of this component of the European Union ECOFAC programme, we can today estimate with great precision the evolution of a much larger range of animals in the region. His estimates are based on the comparison of two scientific inventories carried out in 1985 and 2005 – an opportunity which is rare in Africa – in a zone which stretches over 85,000km². The result is alarming. In hardly 20 years the elephant population has diminished by 80% and that of giraffes by 70%. As for the antelope, the majority of species have lost 70 to 90% of their numbers! 'In the light of such a situation,' explains Philippe Bouché, the author of a recent publication in the African Journal of Ecology (1), 'the countdown towards the extinction of numerous mammals has well and truly started in the north of the CAR.'