The Management of Korup National Park (KNP) has recently signed a Permanent Use Zone (PUZ) Management Plan Agreement with Esukutan Village, one of the five villages within the KNP.

The signing event which took place in April in Esukutan village under the auspices of the Divisional Officer of Toko Subdivision, the Mayor of Toko, the Traditional Chief of Esukutan, the Regional Chief of wildlife and Protected Areas and the Conservator of Korup National Park (KNP), came after a one-year participatory process (that included; village sensitisation, PUZ studies and negotiation) between the management of KNP and Esukutan village with the technical and financial support of the Programme for Sustainable Management of Natural Resources in the South West Region (PSMNR-SWR).

The objective of this process was to delineate a portion of land within the Park to sustain Esukutan village livelihood while preserving the integrity of KNP.

The agreement clearly carves out a total of 2,940 hectares of land for Esukutan Village, outlining four management sectors (settlement, farm expansion, farm reserve land for future generation, communal forests), guidelines for their management, roles and responsibilities of both KNP and Esukutan village. It is an agreement to engage in long-term collaboration between Esukutan village and the park.

The agreement which is the first of its kind within the national territory simply acknowledges that human beings play a vital role in the ecosystem especially those in the five villages within the KNP; Esukutan, Ikenge, Bera, Erat and Bareka Batanga. It is against this backdrop including the financial and security reasons that previous option of resettling the five in-park villages was dropped in favour of the creation of PUZs.

‘The boundary of the PUZ for Esukutan has been determined after a rigorous agro-socio-economic, demographic and wildlife surveys and the signing of this management plan agreement with Esukutan village marks the first step for the village in becoming a legal entity within the KNP’ stated Mr Eben Ebai Samuel, the South West Regional delegate of Forestry and Wildlife.

‘Within the framework of the proposed management plan of KNP, PUZ with accompanying management plan is the only feasible scenario for human settlements within KNP’, added Mr Fotendong Ferdinand the Conservator of KNP.

The PUZ agreement opens the door for Esukutan and subsequently the other in-park villages to collaborate with the Management of KNP in the preservation of the high-value ecosystem of the park and also to the development of these villages.