Illustration of beekeepers in activity

The biosphere reserve of Pendjari (North West Benin) is the first recognized biodiversity hotspot in West Africa (Africanparks.org). The ecosystem spans an area of 4,800 km2 and hold the last refuge of fauna in West Africa (Africanparks.org). Nevertheless, much of the species are often neglected in policy decisions and landscape strategies. The hunting zone is a semi-controlled occupation zone by local people (Djossa et al. 2008) used for agriculture and animal rearing. This is of growing concern as land degradation in riparian areas added to rocky and untillable soils lead the locals to make regular incursion in the hunting zone (limited access area). There, the farmers clear areas with most agroforestry species and keep few of them.

Consequently, the population of those species are highly decreasing, and ask for concrete actions. This situation contributes to weakening the ecological integrity of the reserve and leads to drastic resource depletion. A such, there is a need to reverse the situation as the reserve serves for tourism and provide locals with ecosystem services especially the economic and social value of the park (Vodouhê et al. 2009). This project plans to use a combination of methods to insufflate a new dynamic to the agroforestry systems adjacent to the national park of Pendjari in Benin.