Effect of construction of natural reserve on the livelihoods and income of local residents around Conkouati-Doulinational Park , Republic Of Congo

This study was conducted in Conkouati-Douli National Park (CDNP) to analyze the effect of CDNP construction on local residents’ livelihoods and income. A survey of questionnaires of 100 households was carried in four villages: Tandou-Ngoma, Nzambi, Ngoumbi and Mpela. Focused groups discussions, field observations and secondary data from different sources were used to collect information. The data were analyzed using SPSS (version 19), Excel and simple descriptive statistics. Local communities livelihoods were assessed using the sustainable livelihood framework; the households’ average monthly income at the village scale was also calculated. The results showed that before the establishment of the CDNP, 45,18,16,10 and 4% of households depend on crop farming, fishing, hunting, trading and formal-employment respectively, while 7% of households were unemployed. After the establishment of the CDNP, 33, 19, 14, 5 and 1% of households depend on fishing, trading, agriculture, formal-employment and hunting respectively, while 19% of households were unemployed. The households’ average monthly income before and after the establishment of the CDNP was 227.81 USD and 104.97 USD, respectively, with a change rate of -53.69%. The findings also revealed that incomes were distributed unequally over all households and estimated to be 54.61%; this corresponds to a Gini coefficient of 0.54.


INTRODUCTION
A natural reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest that is reserved and managed for conservation.It also provides special opportunities for study or research.According to scientists at IUCN's (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), World Conservation Monitoring Center (WCMC), and UNEP (United Nations Environment Program), there are 209.429protected areas today, covering a total area of 32,868,673 km 2 -an area larger than the African continent.In total, 3.41% of marine areas and 14% of terrestrial areas of the world are currently protected (Deguignet et al., 2014).About 65% of the world's protected area network sites are located in the European region.However, these sites represent only about 12% of the total area covered by protected areas.Conversely, *Corresponding author.E-mail: gillescamo@yahoo.fr.
Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License the African and South American regions are characterized by a relatively small number of protected areas (respectively 3.32 and 1.62% of the total), but these sites are generally very large and cover about 15% protected area (UNEP-WCMC, 2014).Today The Republic of Congo has 15 protected areas, covering an area of 3,990,000 hectares.In total, 11.7% of the national territory (Doumenge et al., 2015), including 4 national parks covering an area of 2,706,464 ha and 4 wildlife reserves covering an area of 323,700 ha.It also includes 3 sanctuaries covering an area of 322,298 ha, one community reserve covering an area of 438,960 ha, one biosphere reserve covering an area of 136,000 ha and one hunting area covering an area of 65,000 ha (DGSD, 2014).
The CDNP is a site that brings together a wide variety of habitats including lagoons and lakes with brackish and mild water, dense forest of dry land, dense marshy forest, grassy and shrubby savannas, mangroves, maritime fringe and sea.This diversity of habitats justifies the diversity of animal and plant species.However, several threats weigh on this site.Indeed, the Conkouati forest is subject to logging, mining and several oil explorations.The existence of the national road, the high human density in the Park and the poaching are other threats to the site.In addition, the proximity of Pointe-Noire to this site favors the illegal trade in bush meat.Another phenomenon is to report, trawlers causing huge damage to turtles.The main objective of this study is to analyze the impact the construction of the Conkouati-Douli National Park on local residents' livelihoods and income as well the influencing factors.

Study area
This study was conducted in Conkouati-Douli which is a national park located in the south-east of Congo in Central Africa (Figure 1) The Conkouati-Douli National Park was created in 1980 by Order 4432 / MEF / DEFRN / BC-17-01 of May 20, 1980, and the Decree 99/136 bis of August 11, 1999 (Boukoulou, 2016).In 2012, about 7,000 people live in 28 villages that surround the national park, which included approximately 3,500 in the 14 coastal villages of the District of Nzambi and 3,150 in the 14 forest villages of the District of Madingo-Kayes (IUCN/CWAP, 2012).The coastal people are of Vili ethnic origin and they settled in the area in the 13th Century; however, people from villages along the forest road come from various forest ethnic origins.More than 50% of the populations are less than 18 years old, while 80% of the people between the ages of 18 and 45 are unemployed.Local populations, mostly of Vili ethnic origin, make up about 2,500 inhabitants who have remained deeply attached to traditional values and practices related to their natural environment.The dominant activities remaining here such as farming, hunting, and fishing have seized the strong dependence of the populations towards the local natural resources.
CDNP covers a total area of 504,950 ha, the currently known Congo floristic diversity amounts to just over 5,100 species but could reach 6,000 to 6,500 species (DGDD, 2014).It extends between 3° 23-4° 18 and 11° 06 -11° 43 E and bounded on the north by the border with Gabon, on the east by Cotovindo savannas, on west by the Atlantic Ocean and on south by Conkouati Lagoon and Ngongo River (Vheiye et al., 2011).The CDNP has two rainfall trends: from October to December and from March to May, with rainfall ranging between 1,200 and 1,700 mm, interspersed with two dry seasons from mid-December to mid-March and from June to September.The CDNP is also characterized by a daytime overcast, a relative humidity of about 85%, a net solar radiation of 70 W / m 2 , and low temperatures: 19-21°C compared to the national average temperatures: 24 -27°C (Vheiye et al., 2011).Mean annual temperatures, moderate, are around 25°C (extreme: 26 -32°C).
Vegetation is composed of a mosaic of ecosystems as follows.There are semi-deciduous dense rainforests containing Aucoumea klaineana, Terminalia superba, and Dacryodes spp.In the northern part, there are sublittoral forests with a semi-deciduous trend; and transitional and contact formations with Hyparrhenia spp. in savannas; clear shrub strata with Cyperus papyrus in marsh formations; mangroves with Rhizophora racemosa and Phoenix reclinata; and bush-like thickets along the coast.These biotopes are home to the classic fauna of Congolese forests and savannas, and a wide variety of seasonal or permanent birdlife, with 48 mammal species, 400 bird species and 41 reptile species (Vheiye et al., 2011).

Sampling
The study was carried out in January-February 2017 in four different villages: Tandou-Ngoma, Nzambi, Ngoumbi, and Mpela.One hundred people responded to the questionnaire submitted, wherein several teams were developed around the CDNP to collect these data.The study took the form of a field survey based on selected households and key informants.The primary data were collected through a random sampling method of open and closedended questionnaires.The questionnaire had three sections with information on demographic and socio-economic profile, perceptions of wildlife cost, benefits and attitudes and perceptions of wildlife conservation.The questions were asked to generate answers concerning the characteristics, the professional situation, and the economic situation of the respondents as well as the factors of influence.In addition, personal interviews were conducted in crop field areas.The Kitouba, Vili and French languages were used as a means of communication.Key informants included local leaders (chief, assistant chief).Secondary data were obtained from annual project reports and from the department responsible for social relations in CDNP.The information collected was compared with the findings of the current study on how the community perceives conservation projects.The responses to the structured questionnaires were supplemented with information from key informants.
The survey data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 19 and Excel.Regarding the distribution of household livelihoods, they were classified by categories while taking into account the respective villages on SPSS.Talking about households' income, households' average monthly income at the village level was calculated, a Gini's coefficient (GC) was calculated using Excel to show households' income repartition.The current income of 1979 has been converted to the current price of 2017 according to the exchange rate at the time and the annual average inflation rate of the US dollar.. According to the exchange rate between the US dollar and the franc at that time, the average annual inflation rate of the US dollar used was 3.49% (Data source: www.InflationData.com).This PA was selected because the CDNP is a special case; it practically covers all the natural habitats that can be found on the Congolese territory (rivers, lakes, lagoons, swamp forests, dry land forests, savannas, bush savannas, mangrove swamps, sea coast, etc.).It could be said that CDNP can be redefined as the Congo in miniature in terms of ecosystems because everything that can be found in Congo is in the CDNP.The researchers were able to communicate easily with local people because they also mastered one of the languages, the Kitouba language, spoken in the region.
The CDNP is one of the largest parks in the country.Originally, it covered only a few hectares.Subsequently, the Government of the Republic of Congo decided to enlarge its area by Decree Ministerial to increase its extent to several thousand hectares.This extension encompassed a number of villages that were not included within the Park at the time of its creation.On the other hand, the villages of Tandou-Ngoma, Nzambi, Ngoumbi and Mpela have been inside the Park since its creation.The latter have therefore known all the stages of the evolution of the Park to this day.This particularly motivated the focus of study on these villages to know the point of view of the inhabitants before, during and after the creation of the reserve.The results of this study are detailed in this manuscript.

Characteristics of household samples
Table 1 present our households' characteristics.One hundred respondents were interviewed.Fifty-three of those interviewed were men and 57 were women 38 households were selected in the village of Tandou-Ngoma including 26 men and 12 women.In the village of Nzambi, 29 households were selected 12 men and 17 women.Twenty households were selected in the village of Ngoumbi, including 11 and nine 9, and in the village of Mpela, 13 households were selected, including 4 men and 9 women.Regarding the ages of the respondents, reluctance was observed because most female members were unwilling to tell us their age.Results showed that 75% of the respondents have never been to school, 18% of respondents attained a primary level, while 5% of respondents have attained secondary level of education.Only 1% of the respondents have attained tertiary level and only 1% of the respondents have attained college level of education.Regarding religious beliefs, results revealed that 24% of respondents called themselves Christians, 4% were Catholic, and 72% were practicing ancestral traditions.Results also showed that 87% of the respondents were natives of the region, 13% of the respondents came from neighboring regions.

The change of household samples' income
Table 2 presents the change of household samples' income per village.Before the establishment of CDNP, results have revealed that sixty-one (45%) of the respondents depend on crop farming including 20 and 41 women; 67.2% of farmers were women against 32.8% of male farmers.Twenty-four of the respondents (18%) were fisherman, all of which were men.Twenty-two (16%) of the respondents depend on hunting, all of which were also men.Thirteen (10%) of the respondents were traders including 3 and 10 women.Six (4%) of the respondents were employees, and nine (7%) of the respondents were unemployed.It is important to mention that a respondent could have two or more livelihoods at a time.After the establishment of CDNP, the first finding is the number of unemployed households had increased reaching 28% against 7% before the establishment of CDNP.Only one hunter among the 22 hunters was interviewed before CDNP.The number of farmers also dropped by more than half, from sixty-one farmers (45%) before CDNP to fifteen farmers (14%) after CDNP.There are more fishermen (35, 33%) after CDNP than before CDNP (24, 18%).There are also more traders after CDNP that before CDNP, their numbers increased by 20 (19%).The number of employees after CDNP is 5 (5%).
Here, shows the change in households' livelihoods structure, their income structure and their income variation rate before and after CDNP's establishment, this section is classified into five parts.Table 3 presents the households who have no changes in the livelihoods and decrease of the income before and after the establishment of CDNP.The findings have shown that after the creation of CDNP, 9 crop farmers, 7 fishermen, 5 traders and a household engaged in hunting, fishing and crop farming at the same time, got their livelihoods being the same, but have seen their monthly income decreased 92.21%, 93.27%, and 91.70%, respectively.respectively.The annual income of 2017 was converted to the current price of 2017 based on the exchange rate and the annual average inflation rate of the US dollar.The calculated US dollar income in 1979 was based on the income of the year 1979.According to the exchange rate between the US dollar and the franc at that time, the average annual inflation rate of the US dollar from 1979 to 2017 was 3.49% (Data source: www.InflationData.com).
Table 4 presents the group of households who have changed their livelihoods and increased their income before and after CDNP.The results have revealed that after the creation of CDNP, a group of three households engaged in hunting, fishing and crop farming before CDNP, ended up fishing only after the CDNP, and their incomes have increased by 6.26%.Results also revealed that a group of two households engaged in crop farming and trading before the CDNP, ended up farming only after the CDNP, and their income have increased by 154.24%.Finally, a household engaged in formalemployment and fishing after the CDNP turned into crop farming after the CDNP with an income increase of 28.80%.Table 5 presents the group of households who have changed their livelihoods and decreased their income after CDNP.who moved from livelihoods after the CDNP to unemployed situation after the CDNP.The findings have revealed that 19 households engaged in crop farming before the CDNP ended up unemployed after the CDNP.Three households engaged in hunting before the CDNP ended up unemployed after the CDNP.A group of 2 households engaged in hunting and fishing at the same time before the CDNP, ended up unemployed after the CDNP.A household engaged in formal-employment, another household engaged in crop farming and formal-employment and another one engaged in fishing, crop farming and formal-employment before the CDNP, all ended up unemployed after the CDNP.Table 7 present the households who moved from unemployed situation before the CDNP to livelihoods after the CDNP.The results have shown that six unemployed households before the CDNP ended up engaging in fishing, trading and formal-employment.To determine households' total income, the average household cash income in one month from all sources of income in each village were calculated.This study classified income sources into hunting income, fishing income, agricultural income, trading income and formal employment income.Income generating activities contribute variably to the total household income.The households' average monthly income before and after the establishment of the Conkouati-Douli National Park was 227.81 USD and 104.97 USD, respectively, a rate of change of -53.69%.The results also revealed that before the establishment of the Conkouati-Douli National Park, the minimum and maximum income was 35USD and 2680 USD respectively, and after the establishment of the Conkouati-Douli National Park, the minimum and maximum income was estimated to 18 USD and 711 USD respectively.The households' average monthly income at the village level was distributed in the following way: before and after the establishment of the Conkouati-Douli National Park, the households' average monthly income in the village of Tandou-Ngoma was estimated to be 282.81USD and 139.49USD, a rate of change of -50,68.In the village of Nzambi, the households' average monthly income before and after the

Factors affecting households' livelihood and income
These changes are influenced by several factors mentioned above.Laws prohibiting hunting on the economic scale, damages caused by wild animals in farmers' crops subsequently are not compensated for the most part by the authorities.Conflicts between local people and CDNP's staff added to the lack of hiring in the villages and the lack of markets in which the prices of the products could be well fixed by the local populations.Not all these factors are unrelated to inequalities in the income of local populations.

Loss of access to land forest products
The findings have revealed that there is significant association between restrictions on access to resources and loss of economic opportunities from hunting χ2 = 39.984(df = 1, N = 100) P < 0.05.The results also showed that there is significant association between restrictions on access to resources and loss of economic opportunities from agriculture χ2 = 10.633(df = 1, N = 100) P < 0.05.

Wildlife depredations on croplands
Several Pearson independence tests were conducted using SPSS (version 19) to show a significant association between wildlife damages and households' livelihoods and income.The results have revealed that there were significant associations between wildlife damages and households' livelihoods χ2 = 17.667 (df = 2, N = 100) P < 0.05.The results also showed that there is a significant relationship between wildlife damages and the decline in the number of farmers after the establishment of CDNP, χ2 = 23.087(df = 2, N = 100) P < 0.05.The findings also showed that there is a significant relationship between wildlife damages and unemployed households after the establishment of Conkouati-Douli Natural Park.χ2 = 17.667 (df = 2, N = 100) P < 0.05.The results also showed that there is a significant association between damages caused by wildlife and loss of agriculture's opportunities,  Situated near the border of Gabon, they are often the target of elephant raids.In this case, 66% of households claimed to have had experienced this impact by elephants, most of them were women.The households listed many crop-raiding species including antelopes buffaloes, monkeys, wild pigs, most frequently listed species were elephants (95% of farmers have been victims of the damage caused by elephants), and they were ranked the most problematic.The household survey also indicate that banana fields, maize, and cassava (essential staple food of communities), are often consumed and trampled by elephants.

Income inequality of household samples
The Gini's coefficient was used to measure the distribution of income in this study population before and after the establishment of the Conkouati-Douli National Park.Table 8 presents households' income inequality per village.Before and after the establishment of the National Park of Conkouati-Douli, households' total income respectively shows a Gini's coefficient 0.45 and 0.54, which means before CDNP, there was 45.85% of inequality in the total income distribution, and 54.61% of inequality in the total income distribution after the establishment of the CDNP.Regarding the villages before the CDNP, results respectively show 50.19,50.07, 32.70 and 26.07% of inequality in the total income distribution in the villages of Tandou-Ngoma, Nzambi, Ngoumbi, and Mpela.After the CDNP, the findings respectively show 52.16, 55.09, 47.71 and 58.15% of inequality in the total income distribution in the villages of Tandou-Ngoma, Nzambi, Ngoumbi, and Mpela.From these results, it was discovered that the inequality rate in the total income distribution has decreased in the villages of Tandou-Ngoma and Nzambi and has increased in the last two villages.Table 9 presents households' income inequality per livelihoods.Results showed 52.22 and 100% of inequality in total hunting's incomes distribution before and after the CDNP respectively.The same results showed respectively 39.57 and 40.78% of inequality in total fishing's incomes distribution before and after the CDNP.Regarding Agriculture, the findings showed respectively 31.64 and 25.61% of inequality in total incomes distribution before and after the CDNP.Regarding Trading, results showed respectively 27.68 and 30.14% of inequality in total incomes distribution before and after the CDNP, and finally, results showed respectively 20.90 and 27.84% of inequality in total formal employment incomes distribution before and after the CDNP.

DISCUSSION
This study is based on a comparison of the economic situation (livelihoods and incomes) of local communities before and after the creation of the park.

Effects of CDNP on community livelihood
Effects of CDNP on local livelihoods can be from two main points of view: 1) loss of access to land and forest product due to the policy changes; and 2) Human-Wildlife conflicts.According to the Human Development Index (HDI), about 90% of the world's poor depend on the forest (Rich, 2014).In Africa, about 600 million people have been estimated to rely directly on forests for their livelihoods (Bauer et al., 2015).Many authors have highlighted the flaws in the establishment and implementation of conservation policies in PAs that impact local communities' livelihoods and their lands user rights (Ayari, 2017;Rainforest Foundation UK, 2014).Previous studies have examined the issue of the environmental impacts of protected areas, yet one of the most difficult issues in conservation science and policy concerns the impact of protected areas on the well-being of local communities.In this case study, several factors are the cause of the restriction of access to forest resources such as Conflicts with PA's staff, land use rights that are not respected by the government and PA's staff, policy changes on the conservation of PAs.Bennet (2016) made the same observation by conducting a study on Community perceptions of marine protected area livelihood impacts, governance and management in Thailand."A similar study was conducted in Congo and the observation was the same, local communities no longer have access to forest resources, their rights are flouted (Ayari, 2017).
Human-Wildlife conflicts can be classified into two categories: damage to croplands and threats to human life by wild animal from the CDNP.In the case of CDNP, the challenge is crop-raiding mainly by elephants, which especially destroy banana, cassava and maize croplands.Nature studies of the forest elephant's diet reveal that it consumes a variety of food dominated by leaves (Blake, 2002).Boukoulou et al., (2012) made the same observation about feeding behavior by conducting a study on "Human/Elephants conflicts in Miélékouka village north of Odzala Kokoua National Park (Congo) and came to the conclusion that Elephants are much more involved in destruction of banana, cassava and maize crops.It can be assumed that their preference for banana, cassava and maize is due to the abundance and availability of these crops in the croplands.Crop raiding by elephants is considered as major impact, since rural incomes often depend on small-scale farming and raids are rarely compensated.Similar conflicts involving elephants were reported in Africa (Mwakatobe et al., 2014;Mc Guinness et al., 2014;Nyirenda et al., 2013) and in Asia (Redpath et al., 2015;Karanth et al., 2013).Elephants sometimes cause infrastructural and physical damage (Wilson et al., 2015;Hoare, 2015;Redpath et Loussakou and Zhu 133 al., 2013;Gubbi et al., 2014).The need to effectively resolve human-wildlife conflicts inside and outside protected areas is becoming increasingly important.In this case, suggestions were made to minimize human-elephant conflict in the CDNP such as: 1) Propose elephant eviction techniques based on scaring combined with fire and chili spraying.These devices will be installed in and out of the fields.2) Vigilance methods that aim to alert farmers to the presence of approaching wildlife.3) Training community members on Human-Wildlife Conflicts (HWC) and Animal Control Strategies by non-governmental organizations and Parks Authority.Some of these methods have been observed and recorded as being used in different countries (Boukoulou et al., 2012;Barua et al., 2013;Redpath et al., 2015).

Conclusion
This particular study aimed to assess the livelihoods of communities living in and around and their local expansions on the construction of the Conkouati-Douli National Park.It also assessed the impact on household monthly incomes before and after the establishment of the National Park of Conkouati-Douli.Finally, it analyses the main problems caused by the park and the recommendations made by local populations in order to solve the problems they encounter.After this study, it can be concluded that the creation of the CDNP does have a negative impact on local people's incomes and livelihoods.The findings have showed crop farming was the main activity before the CDNP (61 before the CDNP to 15 after the CDNP), and after the establishment of the CDNP, fishing became the main activity inside and out of the PA (24 before the CDNP to 35 after the CDNP).
The households' average monthly income before and after the establishment of the CDNP, was 227.81 USD and 104.97 USD, respectively, a rate of change of -53.69%.The findings have also shown a strong unequal distribution of total income after the establishment of the National Park of Conkouati-Douli with a Gini's coefficient of 0.54 against a Gini's coefficient of 0.45 before the establishment of the CDNP.Regarding the villages, results have shown an unequal distribution of income in the villages of Tandou-Ngoma and Nzambi with respectively a Gini's coefficient of 0.50 and 0.50 before the CDNP.The villages of Ngoumbi and Mpela showed respectively a Gini's coefficient of 0.32 and 0.26.After the establishment of the CDNP, the four villages show an unequal distribution of income with Gini's coefficient of 0.52, 0.55, 0.47 and 0.58, respectively.Gini's coefficients of households' income by livelihoods also show an unequal distribution of income.
This research argues that it is important for authorities to understand how to achieve conservation objectives in protected areas.It would be important to take into account the perceptions of local people, in order to find a good balance between ecosystem management and improving the living conditions of local communities.Conservation programs usually imply restrictions to land use and access, and changes in land use habits that are rarely beneficial to communities.For that reason, it would be necessary for the Government to respect the rights of local people, to strengthen partnerships with local community organizations by providing them with sufficient resources through PA budgets to participate meaningfully.Also, the government is told to encourage and support local people to move towards non-farming activities.
In summary, this study was very productive and interesting.However, during this survey, data such as crops areas of farmers' fields including areas damaged by wildlife, the estimation of the total cost from crop damages by wildlife, the prices of the main crops, the prices of the main sales products from traders and prices of major fishery products were not collected.There was also some challenges with the time consumption to gather an interesting number of people.Lack of data on the households, the refusal of some to cooperate during the interrogations, and the lack of materials and technical support needed in the data analysis posed as challenges; these would have enabled a comprehensive work on the impact of protected areas on local populations.This study represents a relationship between local populations on protected areas and their impact in the socio-cultural and economic fields; also to make local populations aware of the importance of protected areas in the national territory.
χ2 = 13.465(df = 2, N = 100) P < 0.05.The people living in and around the Conkouati Douli Park are the first to oppose this, denouncing its disastrous consequences on the economy and agriculture.The villages of Tandou-Ngoma and Nzambi are most affected by the ban.
Source: a household survey in 2017.
Table 6 presents the households

Table 2 .
Livelihoods Change of 100 households samples before and after the establishment of CDNP unit: households.

Table 3 .
Livelihoods diversification and income of households' samples (no changes in the livelihoods and decrease of the income after CDNP).
Data Source: household survey in 2017.

Table 4 .
Livelihoods diversification and income of households' samples (Change in the livelihoods and decrease of the income before and after CDNP).

Table 5 .
Livelihoods diversification and income of households' samples (from livelihoods to no livelihoods before and after CDNP).
establishment of the Conkouati-Douli National Park was estimated to be 170.55USD and 94.96 USD respectively, a change rate of -44.32.The households' average monthly income before and after the establishment of the Conkouati-Douli National Park in the village of Ngoumbi was estimated to be 181.1 USD and 80.8 USD respectively, a rate of change of -56.35.Finally, in the village of Mpela, the households' average

Table 6 .
Livelihoods diversification and income of households' samples (from no livelihoods to livelihoods before and after CDNP).

Table 7 .
Contribution of different income-generating activities to households' average monthly income before and after the establishment of CDNP in village level.

Table 8 .
Gini coefficient of the households' total income before and after CDNP.

Table 9 .
Gini coefficient of households' income by livelihoods before and after CDNP.
Source: household survey in 2017