A Map for Conservation Success

From many angles, the Congo Heartland appears like an endless dense tropical forest. But, an aerial view reveals a different picture. Thanks to the latest mapping technology from NASA, the University of Maryland and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), AWF can monitor changes to the landscape and gain a greater understanding of the human impact on this forest zone that is home to a wealth of African wildlife, including the endangered bonobo.

The dense Congo forest zone is home to thousands of wildlife species, including forest elephants and the bonobo – a great ape that shares 98.4% of human genetic code. Historically, the rich soils of the river banks have provided fertile ground for crops including coffee, rubber, and palm oil. And, the rivers host more than 400 species of fish.

Years of civil war have wreaked havoc on this landscape. Crop fields have been abandoned. Farmers have fled deeper into the forest in search of food, causing much destruction in their path. Bonobos and other wildlife have been killed to provide a much-needed meal. And, trees have been cut down, making the forest more penetrable, leaving the wildlife more vulnerable to human impact.

AWF, NASA, the University of Maryland, and other partner organizations under the framework of USAID’s Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) have recently produced the first of eleven poster maps that graphically depict a decade of change in the landscapes of the Congo Basin.

The first map – a map of AWF’s Congo Heartland – uses Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and satellite images to show what forest areas have been disturbed since the 1990s due to road networks to allow people to travel further into the forest, logging, slash and burn for agriculture, and hunting camps.

Equipped with a better a spatial understanding of human activities in the area and the impact they are having on the forest and native species will in turn help conservationists to focus their energy on appropriate initiatives.

With the production of these poster maps, conservation organizations and researchers, including AWF, can gain a much clearer picture of the landscapes they are working to protect. These maps can help identify key threats to conservation measures and, therefore, lead to the generation of effective and sustainable development plans that will both help improve the lives of people and protect the wildlife.