Our friend of the month is Lieutenant-Colonel Amandine Gnido Assogba Deleke, the current EPI focal point for Benin, and a doctor (PhD) in conservation ecology and professionally, the Director of Wildlife, Biodiversity, and Nature Conservation (DFBCN) at the Direction Générale des Eaux, Forêts et Chasse du Bénin (DGEFC). Benin has been a member of the Elephant Protection Initiative since 2020.
A portrait of Lieutenant-Colonel Amandine Gnido Assogba Deleke
Please introduce yourself briefly and explain to the audience what you do professionally.
The Technical Directorate that I head helps to achieve the objectives of the DGEFC by promoting and implementing biodiversity conservation strategies in collaboration with other specialist bodies (Forest Inspectorate, Universities, Civil Society Organisations, NGOs, etc.); organising the rational management of vegetation fires; proposing strategies and plans for safeguarding protected areas, including marine areas and wetlands; and monitoring and capitalising on the results of wildlife reserve management. We are responsible for ensuring compliance with procedures and standards for the exploitation of natural resources; for ensuring compliance with measures, standards, and procedures for the import of species of fauna and flora and derived forest products; for participating in the promotion of improved production systems and the conservation management of water and soil; and for monitoring the implementation of activities relating to the Convention on International Trade in endangered species of Flora and Fauna. As a forester, I am very attached to social forestry and the participatory processes implemented in the various classified forests in Benin.
Tell us about your background and the influence it has had on your passion for wild flora, fauna and conservation.
I was born in Natitingou, in the northwest of Benin, Zou Department, in the city of Abomey. I'm naturally passionate about nature, thanks to my father, who loved sport hunting and travelling as a primary school inspector at the time. It was my father who instilled in me the love I have for flora and fauna. This was reinforced by my academic and professional career. After graduating as a forestry engineer, I was admitted to the Water, Forestry, and Hunting Corps. A few years later, I obtained a professional master's degree in Natural Resource and Biodiversity Management and then a doctorate in ecology and species conservation at the UAC in 2018. My professional career in water, forestry, and hunting has given me an understanding of many aspects of working life in relation to the environment and, more specifically, natural resource management. Haven't you noticed that the environment is being disrupted by its daily degradation? We are witnessing an increasing loss of biodiversity. If nothing is done, future generations will hardly know about some of the key wild species that make up this world, and that is the motivation driving my career in wildlife conservation and the fight against wildlife crime.
What are your most memorable experiences of working to protect endangered wildlife species, especially elephants?
One of the most memorable moments of my career was the day I fulfilled my duty as a good citizen by applying the regulations in force to illegal holders of timber from endangered native species such as Pterocarpus erinaceus and Afzelia africana, for which my then Minister, Juliette Biau Koudenoukpo, congratulated me. I also helped to seize a large shipment of elephant ivory from one of our parks, shark fins, Pandinus imperator scorpions, and crowned cranes, destined to be sold illegally. It was a complex and risky operation, but the coordination between non-governmental organisations and the local community enabled us to stop this trafficking. Seeing the concrete results of our efforts and knowing that we had saved many animal lives was a deeply satisfying experience.
Despite the many efforts made to protect the elephant, its safety and the restoration of its habitat remain under threat from poaching. The strategy drawn up in 2025 for the conservation of this emblematic animal has set itself five objectives, namely:
To know the elephant populations;
To set up an effective system for monitoring the species' vital areas and migration corridors;
To promote management systems that ensure the growth of Benin's elephant populations;
To strengthen regional and international cooperation on the management of the species; and
To develop the capacity of stakeholders for the sustainable management of elephant populations, their habitats, and their migration corridors.
The efforts made by EPIF since 2020 in Benin, coupled with national protected area management measures, have certainly contributed to the growth and stabilisation of the elephant population, even though deplorable acts of poaching have been recorded in recent months.
Elephants in Benin
During your tenure, you have been at the forefront of research and policy aimed at creating healthy, balanced, self-generating communities where animals and people live in harmony. What is closest to your heart and why? Tell us more.
What's closest to my heart and motivates me in species conservation is my desire to protect the environment and make a difference in the world. I'm passionate about nature, and protecting the environment is one of Benin government's major concerns. For example, Benin's coastal zone is home to significant biodiversity, and this diversity is much more concentrated in the protected areas, with threats to their conservation. These threats include the spread of vegetation fires, extensive livestock farming, the abusive extraction of woody stands, the practice of transhumance characterised by overgrazing, the spraying of pesticides, the intensification of poaching activities, and agricultural expansion. These factors are compounded by climate change and an inappropriate institutional and regulatory framework.
In your experience of coordinating conservation projects in Benin, what obstacles have you come up against at community or social level when it comes to protecting the African elephant?
Difficulties in implementing policies and strategies for the conservation of natural ecosystems and the lack of funding for the management of human-elephant conflicts. In addition, there is a lack of appropriate equipment to meet the complex challenges of monitoring and combating wildlife crime.
On a personal level, what are your dreams and ambitions for the conservation of Benin's ecosystems?
There are many of them. For example:
The conservation of all of Benin's biodiversity in a system of wildlife reserves; effective and efficient management of wildlife reserves;
The search for sustainable funding for wildlife reserves and their judicious use;
The efficient implementation of sustainable conservation strategies throughout the country.
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