APEF Project” (Aires Protégées et Écosystèmes Fragiles) in Chad. An initiative that will last until 2023, to ensure “sustainable management of natural resources

In 2017, the European Union activated funds for the “APEF Project” (Aires Protégées et Écosystèmes Fragiles) in Chad. An initiative that will last until 2023, to ensure “sustainable management of natural resources”.

A major operation of environmental sustainability – protection ofwild animals and the biodiversity of the area – in an African region where, for 25 years, the European Union has been committed to maintaining that balance so fragile and extremely important for the area and the ecosystem of the planet. In particular, the interventions are addressed in and around the Zakouma National Park.

The support and technical assistance program fits into this context,within which technicians and experts of AGT International carry out integrating activities. The Technical Assistance contract has a duration of four years, from 2019 to 2023, and a value of just under 3 million euros. The entire “APEF Project” requires the financial intervention from the European Union of over 37 million euros.

In particular, the Technical Assistance contract has two specific objectives. The first concerns: “Monitor and support the implementation of capacity building actions in the areas of governance, conservation strategy, performance of regulatory and institutional arrangements, budgeting, transversal dialogue and intersectoral coordination”.

The second specific objective – within the APEF Project – aims to promote an Intersectoral approach to territorial development integrating conservation, and support the decentralized services of the Ministry in charge of the Environment and of the various Ministries involved as well as the regional actors, in the establishment of mechanisms for coordination and concerted regional planning, and in the implementation and monitoring of the actions of the program.

The Technical Assistance intervention is part of the three results expected from the entire APEF Programme in Chad.

The first result to be pursued concerns the definition of a stable governance that makes it possible to ensure stable financing of the initiatives launched, and a regulatory and legal system that places protected areas and the elements of nature and biodiversity that are intended to be protected and conserved, under certain protection. The second result that APEF intends to achieve concerns the Zakouma Park area. The large ecosystem of the park must be preserved over time and must be able to rely on adequate support within the network of African natural parks. The third objective of the program concerns the preservation of the heritage of the area between the Sahel and the Sahara.

Protection and concerted management of the fragile ecosystems and sites of the area, and of the Sahel-Saharan communities is of fundamental importance.