Participative Management of the Sanctuary of Western Lowland Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) of Lossi in Republic

The gorilla sanctuary of Lossi experiments the synergy between scientific research and nature conservation. Three partners are involved in a management participative process. These partners include the Republic of Congo, the local community of Lossi and the European programme on the forest ecosystems in Central Africa. An investigation was carried out on the sanctuary of Lossi in 2003, in order to study in situ the effects generated by the participative management and to identify the constraints linked to the participative approach. The work of primatologists allowed the habituation of the gorillas to the human presence and opened eyesight tourism of western lowland gorillas. A camp for tourists and the access road to the sanctuary have been constructed. The tourism generated jobs in favour of the local population which is also a take-partner of contracts on road repairing. The income from the tourism allowed the construction of a health centre. However, the works of researchers and tourism activities failed during the outbreaks of the Ebola hemorrhagic fever and during the three civil war episodes. The consolidation and the long term of this process of co-management of natural resources of Lossi remains the establishment of a management that should include conservation, rural development and scientific research, with equitably in the distribution of gain between the partnerses