Within the framework of the implementation of the Regional Indicative Program (RIP) of the European Union in West Africa 2014-2020 (11th European Development Fund), and specifically in its priority area 3: "Resilience, food and nutritional security and natural resources", an action to support the preservation of biodiversity and fragile ecosystems, environmental governance and climate change in West Africa has been adopted in consultation with ECOWAS and UEMOA. It is within this framework that the EU, ECOWAS and UEMOA adopted the PAPBio: "Support program for the preservation of biodiversity and fragile ecosystems, regional governance and climate change in West Africa" - PAPBio (ROC/FED/039-269) at the end of a consultation carried out in 14 countries, and financed by a contribution from the 11th EDF-IRP-WA.

Component 2 of the PAPBio - Regional Governance of Protected Areas and Security - is implemented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), through its Regional Program for Central and West Africa (PACO). It aims to instil a regional dynamic for the effective management of protected areas and climate risks, the sharing and capitalization of experience and knowledge at all levels and the fight against environmental crime.

In Result 4, several activities have been planned such as The creation of an operational regional mechanism for the coordination, management and monitoring of PAs, the strengthening of regional mechanisms for the conservation and sustainable management of coastal ecosystems, support for mechanisms to monitor the management of PAs, the state of the environment and climate change at regional and national level, Improving the coordination of PA management with the implementation of different regional policies, programs and/or sectoral strategies, building regional capacity in ecosystem-based natural capital accounting and developing a harmonized reporting system for use by all PAs in the region.

In the perspective of having a harmonized reporting system usable by all PAs at local, national and regional levels, to improve the efficiency of PA management and to feed the regional observatory for biodiversity and PAs in West Africa, the Regional Governance of PAs project is organizing IMET campaigns for the benefit of PAs in West African countries.

In 2021 the Regional Governance of Protected Areas project conducted IMET campaigns in several protected areas. This year, the WAP complex, a transboundary UNESCO World Heritage site assessed using the IMET tool in 2019, has been proposed to be assessed in 2022 in order to see the different progress made. It consists of five (5) protected areas that will be assessed individually. To this end, the first actors involved in each WAP protected area and the junior IMET coaches benefited from a refresher course on the IMET tool from 20 to 22 April 2022 in Ouagadougou in order to carry out the pre-fillings as a prelude to the IMET campaigns of the WAP Complex. Three (3) senior coaches, namely TAMINI Philippe (Burkina Faso), Dr. Aristide TEHOU (Benin) and Ibrahim BELLO NAKATA (Niger) led this training session on the IMET tool.

The IMET campaigns in Burkina Faso concerned the W Burkina National Park and the Arly National Park and were held from 24 to 28 April 2022 in Tenkodogo, those in Benin were held from 8 to 16 May 2022 and concerned the W Benin National Park and the Pendjari National Park, and those in Niger were organized from 22 to 26 May 2022.

These campaigns allowed the mapping of the management of protected areas of the WAP Complex. These campaigns will make it possible to highlight the strengths, weaknesses and difficulties related to the management of each protected area.

Recommendations were made to the authorities in charge of protected areas in each country. A feedback workshop will be organized to present the results and recommendations to the different Ministers of the countries and the Directors, conservators and managers of the evaluated protected areas.