Immigration: a potential time bomb under the Integration of Conservation and Development

Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs) aim to stimulate conservation without the previous negative experiences for local people, but pay little attention to their long-term impact such as immigration. The rehabilitation of the Logone floodplain in North Cameroon, the core activity of the Waza-Logone ICDP, has led to a 34% increase of sedentary fishermen and a multiple number of temporary fishermen. Whereas livestock pressure tripled, kob antelopes, a key floodplain species, have not increased, reducing their competitiveness. The virtual disappearance of wildlife in nearby Kalamaloué National Park (NP), due to advanced human encroachment forms, is therefore a bleak perspective for Waza NP. Examples from the Central African Republic (CAR), Galapagos, Nigeria and Zimbabwe also showed that in open-access systems, improvement in living standards (development) may stimulate immigration, jeopardizing the stability necessary in protected areas (conservation). Most ICDPs lack demographic monitoring, masking its possible immigration risk. To counter the immigration risk in Waza, a policy was formulated based on local stakeholder categorization and subsequent privileges, resulting in the voluntarily displacement of a village out of Waza NP. It is further recommended that ICDPs should be involved in regional land-use planning and discourage development activities that stimulate immigration.