BACKGROUND/JUSTIFICATION

Based on socio-economic and environmental data collected from suppliers, the DNCVSOE was able to produce three reports on the state of the environment. It must be recognized that the DNCVSOE is dependent on data provided mainly by its suppliers. This data, if updated regularly, could improve the quality of these reports. To alleviate this situation, the DNCVSOE would like to take advantage of this call for projects launched by CEBiOS to strengthen its own technical capacities for data collection and processing. This is how the choice was made on the Mafou wetland, in the Upper Niger Park, in the Faranah region some 460 km from the capital Conakry (Rep. of Guinea).

To achieve this, we would like to set up an observatory in the wetland in order to collect data and information to measure the impacts of human activities that are carried out in the environment of the park.

The idea has a legal basis simply because Guinea has ratified the Convention on Biodiversity and presents activities that contribute to its implementation.

According to the CBD, in its article 3, the management of these resources is naturally the responsibility of the Guinean government.

This management naturally begins with the estimation, measurement of existing resources and environmental monitoring through the establishment of an observatory, which is an essential tool for this type of assessment.

1. Political factors.

To instill socio-economic development in the country, the Guinean government has developed a reference document called the National Programme for Economic and Social Development (PNDES). The fourth pillar of this document is devoted to the management and use of resources called natural capital management. The implementation of this pillar is ensured by the Ministry in charge of the Environment.

2. Economic Factors

The Guinean population is mostly rural; they derive most of their livelihood from the exploitation of natural resources. To maintain access to resources and allow populations to use them sustainably, it would be essential to implement participatory, rational and effective management.

3. Sociocultural Factors

Wetlands play a very important role in the socio-cultural life of the people who live around these areas. A whole tradition is developed by the populations in the exploitation and management of marshes. Every year, festivities are organized by the villagers to start farming activities.

4. Technical Factors

The DNCVSOE, a service under the Ministry of the Environment, has the technical capacity to provide environmental observations and monitoring at the national level. The lack of financial resources at the level of the DNCVSOE means that this surveillance is not carried out. If this project is financed by the Belgian Cooperation, it will make it possible to create the first observatory on wetlands.

5. Environmental Factors

Numbering 16, wetlands in Guinea provide important ecosystem services for the country. For a majority peasant population, the conservation of such a network of protected areas contributes a lot in the fight against poverty by solving food and other problems.

6. Legal Factors

Such conservation cannot be done without data and information, the law l/2014/019/an of July 08, 2014, on the Organization and Regulation of Statistical Activities gives us the right to own and manage our own data and to provide them to any other users.

Objectives

Overall objective

Ecological data is sorely lacking in Guinea. All statistics are aging, so decisions made based on such statistics are unreliable. The DNCVSOE was created to fill this gap in ecological data by conducting environmental monitoring. The service created is struggling to carry out this work due to lack of financial resources. The overall objective of this project is the establishment of an observatory at the PNHG level to contribute to the updating of biological and socio-economic data around the park.

 

Specific goals

The PNHG is one of the few protected area sites in the PA (Protected Areas) network that have benefited from a development plan (1999-2003), this plan will have made it possible to make a socio-economic and environmental characterization of the site. Any plan is called upon to be revised at a well-chosen stage. The PNHG project ended in 2003, 17 years ago. The result of the 1999-2003 plan was a list of 54 families and 167 plant species.

The specific objective of this project is to:

• revise this list to find out what has remained after so many years;
• Archive and publish data on computer platforms (CHM/GUINEE site and the IPT (Integrated Portal Tool) instance of GBIF/GUINEE) for free access.