20 February 2012: The Steering Committee of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) Sahelo-Saharan Antelopes project in Niger has reviewed progress on anti-poaching activities and the planned designation of the Termit Tin Toumma area as a nature reserve.

Termit holds the last wild population of addax in the world, as well as dama and dorcas gazelles, Barbary sheep, cheetah, Arabian and Nubian bustards, a breeding colony of lappet-faced vultures and other species of birds, mammals and reptiles.

The meeting was the Committee’s third, and took place in Niamey, Niger on 16 February 2012. The Committee is chaired by Mamadou Manane, Secretary-General, Ministry of Water and Environment, and is composed of mayors of the main communities of the Termit area, and members of the General Directorate of Forests, the Sahara Conservation Fund (SCF), the EU Delegation in Niger, UN Development Programme (UNDP) and CMS. The Sahelo-Saharan Antelopes Project in Termit was initiated by CMS and its partners in 2007 as part of the Sahelo-Saharan Megafauna concerted action, with current funding from the EU.

The Steering Committee reviewed and approved the activity report for 2011 as well as the budget and action plan for 2012, highlighting the increase in poaching and human disturbance in connection with oil exploration activities. The Committee noted that poaching targets dorcas gazelle and that the survival of addax is at risk, with human disturbance in the area causing the population to split into two different groups. The Steering Committee also highlighted that anti-poaching brigades have arrested 19 poachers and seized 37 carcasses of dorcas gazelles and 3 young gazelles, and that a network of poachers was dismantled by the regional brigade of Zinder.

The Committee hopes for the designation of Termit as a nature reserve equivalent to a Category 4 of International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) protected areas classification. The reserve would cover an area of 97,000 square kilometers (km2), making it one of the largest protected areas in Africa. The reserve would not include areas that are subject to oil exploration activities. [CMS News]