The under-financing of protected areas in the Congo Basin: so many parks and so little willingness-to-pay

Protected areas in the Congo Basin cover approximately 6% of the landscape, and several international NGOs are proposing substantial additions to the present network of parks and reserves. Yet, chronic under-funding has long precluded effective management of most parks and reserves resulting in thei r progressive ecological impoverishment, and the loss of biodiversity. Furt hermore, not only are the indebted nations of the Congo Basin not in a posi tion to contribute significantly to cover the recurring costs of protected area management, the growing opportunity costs of setting aside protected a reas is increasing the incentives to local communities and national governm ents to 'illegally' exploit economically valuable resources within parks an d reserves. If the global value of the biodiversity contained within the Co ngo Basin is considered worth preserving then donors and international NGOs must work with national governments to reach consensus on an optimal prote cted area network that (a) contains a representative assemblage of forest s pecies; (b) is composed of forest blocks that are sufficiently large, intac t, and likely to persist; (c) contains zones of active speciation (e.g. eco tones), and (d) can expect to receive sufficient long-term financial suppor t to ensure effective management. Given the 'need to eat today' reality of economies in the Congo Basin, the international community must decide to sh oulder most of the costs of conservation of globally important biodiversity . If donors continue to under-finance protected areas rather than make the hard choices associated with prioritizing protected area spending then most if not all protected areas within the Congo Basin will continue to exhibit reductions in the biomass of individual species, and risk the extirpation or extinction of large, slow reproducing species, and rare endemics.