Strategy 7: Maintenance, strengthening and establishment of protected areas

Protected areas (PAs) are critical for the protection of chimpanzees and their habitat. However, despite the creation of several new national parks in recent years (Boé, Dulombi, Gola, Grebo-Kahn and Moyen-Bafing), only about 17% of the present population of western chimpanzees reside in high-level PAs (Heinicke et al. 2019a). Historically, PAs in West Africa have served largely as islands of biodiversity sheltered from the wave of habitat destruction blanketing the region, and frequently serve as the last vestiges of chimpanzee persistence while habitat is lost around them (Junker et al. 2012). Côte d’Ivoire is a pointed example. Amidst a 50% human population increase, the country lost most of its natural habitat and chimpanzees, few of which are now occur outside national parks (Campbell et al. 2008). The positive effects that PA status has on chimpanzee populations can spill over to other species. Chimpanzee abundance in Liberia, for example, is highly correlated with other large mammal abundances and tree diversity (Junker et al. 2015b). Protection of chimpanzees via PA status, therefore, can have umbrella effects on biodiversity at large, thus cementing their significance as a valuable flagship species for biodiversity in the region.

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However, the integrity of the ecosystems in PAs is increasingly under threat. Common threats to western chimpanzees, such as poaching and habitat loss, also plague PAs. The PAs of West Africa have been rated as suffering the highest degrees of various threats to PAs across Africa (Tranquilli et al. 2014). Greengrass (2016) demonstrated that, despite its protected status, wildlife in Sapo National Park is under considerable poaching pressure due to the bushmeat trade, and that this pressure extends to the vulnerable chimpanzee population. To add to this, many PAs in the region are earmarked for mining or other infrastructure development (Junker et al. 2015b; Heinicke et al. 2019a). The Koukoutamba hydroelectric dam, for example, is slated to be built in the middle of the Moyen Bafing National Park in Guinea, which could kill up to one-third of the resident chimpanzees.

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The creation of PAs has long been considered to be the most effective conservation strategy by chimpanzee conservationists working in West Africa (Neugebauer 2018). However, the effectiveness of PA creation is high only when PAs are well funded and well managed. ‘Paper parks’ in which little conservation activity occurs, that are poorly funded and poorly managed, are ineffective (Tranquilli et al. 2014). It is, therefore, important to support activities in PAs that perform well and are proven effective, as well as to establish locally appropriate systems where current coverage does not suffice. The following are the objectives for this strategy.