Population losses from poaching are caused by large numbers of people having access to previously remote ape habitat, facilitated by the construction of open access roads or railroads associated with logging and mining. Of particular note in Africa was the loss of over 90% of the great apes inhabiting a vast swathe of land stretching from northeastern Gabon to western Congo as a result of successive Ebola virus disease outbreaks between the 1990s and 2005. Poaching and disease have been responsible for considerable declines in great ape numbers in the region over the last few decades. Nonetheless, chimpanzees and gorillas are killed by opportunistic poachers, typically to supply an illegal and elitist commercial trade in bushmeat 'delicacies'. Since they are threatened with extinction, great apes are completely protected by national and international laws in all countries of their range, and it is, therefore, illegal to kill, capture or trade in live apes or their body parts. Low birth rates, long periods of infant and juvenile dependence, and late age of maturity mean that great apes are slow to recover from population reduction events when compared to the faster-breeding ungulates and smaller primates with which they co-exist. The action plan lays out a strategy for gorilla and chimpanzee conservation in Western Equatorial Africa. Protected areas alone hold only 21% of these great apes, further underlining the need for effective management and protection of large areas outside formally protected areas in order to maintain their populations. The total area of the 18 landscapes covers 51% of the range of these two taxa, but holds over 77% of the individual apes. The results produced 18 priority conservation landscapes, six of which were classified as being of exceptional priority as they each harbour more than 5% of the total number of great apes in the region (i.e., 5% of the global population of western lowland gorillas and central chimpanzees). Priority landscapes were then delineated using a decision support tool and a suite of criteria that included the presence of an existing or planned protected area and a great ape population of at least 2,000 individuals (gorillas and chimpanzees combined). Statistical modelling of these survey data was used to create predicted density maps for the entire geographic range of the sympatric western lowland gorillas and central chimpanzees. 2005), to develop a plan of action that will serve as a guide for range-state governments, donors and conservation organisations to target conservation investment in the region.Īll available survey data collected between 20 were compiled and used to verify, refine and re-assess priority areas for great ape conservation. These stakeholders assessed great ape conservation needs for the next 10 years, building on an action plan published in 2005 (Tutin et al. Conservation strategies and actions must be designed to respond to these pressures to maintain great ape populations at their present numbers.Ī new Action Plan (IUCN 2014) is the product of the second regional workshop on conservation planning for these two subspecies of great ape, which brought together senior representatives of the wildlife authorities in the six range states, protected area managers, NGOs, scientists, wildlife health experts, industry representatives and donors. More recently the forest itself has come under threat from the expansion of industrial agriculture, which will result in massive losses of great ape habitat unless rapid, targeted action is taken. These great apes are undergoing a dramatic decline due to poaching, disease and habitat loss, driven by demands for bushmeat, a lack of law enforcement, by corruption, and by increased access to their once-remote habitat. The Critically Endangered western lowland gorilla ( Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and the Endangered central chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes troglodytes) inhabit the rainforests of the six countries listed above. Most of the world’s gorillas and about one-third of all chimpanzees live in Western Equatorial Africa: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo and Angola (Cabinda enclave).
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