EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

         Participative demarcation is a preliminary activity in the process of creating a protected area. In order to elaborate a technical note for creating any protected area, there is a need for proposed map of the area in which we wish to protect is produce.  In this regard, the full participation and concern of the community adjacent the proposed protected area is needed. It was for this reason that in July 2017, a 2 weeks field trip was conducted around Mt Muanenguba to include the villages surrounding the mountain in the demarcation of the proposed Integral Ecological Reserve.

The objectives were; to involve the local community members for the proposed area to be protected, to collect the geographical coordinates on the areas proposed by the population and to produce a map of the proposed boundaries of the Integral Ecological Reserve.

In order to identify the limits of the proposed Mt Muanenguba Integral Ecological Reserve, 3 people who know their village boundaries and their forest area were selected by their local leaders to represent their clans after a meeting with the team involve in the demarcation process. In the same meeting the community members identified land marks within the proposed protected area and sketched the maps of the area using bold marker and a card board. After the meetings in the villages the next days the various community representatives and the GIS expert went down to the field and collect coordinate points of the identified boundaries of the proposed protected area using the GPS.  The satellite images were used as to guide the community members on the identification of land features in the proposed areas.

Coordinate points collected where labelled A to Y and were integrated into GIS software (Arc GIS 10.3).

Sixteen (16) out of the 20 villages adjacent the Mt Muanenguba area in the Littoral and South West regions were involved in the identification process.  Two villages NJOUMBENG 1 and NJOUMBENG 2 were excluded from the boundary identification process because they do not have lands in the proposed protected area.  Two (2) other villages (Mouandong and Ndom) resisted due to the fact that their elites were not informed.   However after consultation of the two resistance villages   the coordinate points were integrated in to the GIS software