Around 30,000 people legally live within or move through the Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve every year, making community work here vital. In its contemporary setting, Ennedi hosts semi-nomadic groups of herders who move their livestock through the Massif. The livelihoods of these groups, and the thousands of inhabitants of the area and surrounding regions, are tied to the availability of water, pastures and other benefits emanating from this oasis, thus accentuating the importance of safeguarding this fragile ecosystem.
Community Engagement
The communities in the area are integral to the conservation of Ennedi, and engagement with local people is essential to secure the long-term protection of the landscape.
As a result, the Community Development team has prioritised conservation and environmental awareness-raising, developing comprehensive environmental education programmes and socio-economic initiatives.
Education and Environmental Awareness
The primary goal of the community development team over the past few years has been to continue building a solid educational system in the reserve and to help promote schooling for children and to engage the local communities in topics such as biodiversity conservation.
To tackle this, the “Les Petits Mouflons” is a one-of-a-kind educational truck, which travels across Ennedi raising awareness about environmental protection, particularly reaching areas where formal schooling is scarce. Since it began in 2023, the truck has reached over a thousand people, with positive feedback. Completing 10 days in the field at a time, both children and adults are encouraged to participate in the truck’s many activities which include guessing the names of the different animals in the reserve to win prizes of books, pens and t-shirts and a short movie of Ennedi’s ostriches.
Primary school teachers are being trained in environmental education, aiming to integrate the team’s Environmental Education Guide into the national primary education curriculum, covering topics such as biodiversity, archaeology, waste management and natural resources. A ready-to-use guide has been rolled out to teachers throughout the reserve.
Sustainable Enterprise Development
Ensuring that the nomadic groups who have lived here for thousands of years can continue to do so in a way that supports the conservation of Ennedi as well as realising the benefits of biodiversity conservation is key. Thanks to conservation and protection efforts in partnership with the government and communities, African Parks is working to actualise revenue opportunities, through well-run niche tourism and other small enterprises.
Sustainable pastoral programmes and training to boost skills development with a view to encouraging conservation-led economic development is ongoing. The gardening project in Fada has been very successful, with local women actively tending plots and cultivating various crops, including watermelon, lettuce, tomato, onion, garlic, chilli, and sorrel. Livelihood opportunities in Fada are improving with the development of a few shops that have expanded due to the operational requirements of the reserve. Ennedi is also the second-largest provider of employment in the Ennedi Ouest province, after the Chadian Government.
Community Infrastructure Development
The community development team in Ennedi has conducted several awareness-raising training sessions, and the team’s agronomist implemented a new system to enhance harvest monitoring. Seed distribution extended to the Fada communal garden and similar gardening structures in Wei, Nohi and Tébi.
In the Fada communal garden, boreholes with solar panels and pumps have been constructed. With this improved water supply, the Fada market gardeners cultivate nearly three hectares and provide seed to over 40 market gardeners’ associations.