A New Approach to Gorilla Conservation: "Gorilla Guardians"
A new community-based approach to the conservation of some of the most
remote (and hence least protected) groups of Cross River gorillas is currently
underway in Cameroon. "Gorilla guardians" are in the process
of being selected from the local population in villages close to target
gorilla sites, with the overall goal being to strengthen monitoring, awareness,
and protection of Cross River gorillas and other endangered species, through
an approach that encourages greater community participation in conservation.
In particular, the creation of these gorilla guardians provides another
step towards the general sensitisation of the local people living in the
Takamanda-Mone Landscape, as many of the villages earmarked to be involved
in this initiative fall outside the range of current WCS-led conservation
education activities.
Six villages have been selected initially to participate, two from each
of the three remote gorilla sites - the Mowambi Hills, the Mbulu Forest
and northern Mone - that we are targeting for improved conservation action.
An estimated 60 or so gorillas are thought to be present in these sites,
representing perhaps as many as 50% of all remaining Cross River gorillas
in Cameroon (the total estimated number of Cross River gorillas in Nigeria
and Cameroon is thought to be between 200 and 295 individuals; Oates et
al. 2007). These gorillas are the most vulnerable, as they inhabit forests
with little or no legal protection and where hunting pressure is particularly
high. The gorilla guardian villages have traditional ownership over the
forest areas where the gorillas occur, and their traditional councils
have participated in the selection of the gorilla guardians, providing
a strong sense of community involvement from the beginning. Due to the
remote nature of these sites, survey work and ongoing gorilla monitoring
in these forests has historically been limited, another good argument
for involving local communities who live on the gorillas' doorstep.
The gorilla guardian approach aims to promote the conservation of these
gorillas in three important ways. First, the appointed guardians will
act as a direct link between conservation authorities and their sites,
reporting any confirmed incidence of gorilla (and chimpanzee) hunting
to government officials and WCS quickly. This will help strengthen the
application of wildlife laws. Second, gorilla guardians will gather information
concerning the location of gorilla nests from forest users within their
community (particularly from hunters). This information will be recorded
on a community-produced forest map. Research staff from WCS and the government
will visit each village 2-3 times a year, to conduct surveys, visiting
recorded nest sites in conjunction with the gorilla guardians. Given typical
nest decay rates in the area, it should be possible for monitoring teams
to visit most recorded nest sites on these regular visits. The use of
this a priori knowledge should increase the effectiveness of such ongoing
monitoring, as nest site searches will be directed rather than random,
increasing the yield of baseline data and giving us a better idea of how
gorillas disperse in various forest areas over time. Lastly, gorilla guardians
will play an important role in building awareness amongst their communities
of a range of topical conservation issues, as an extension of present
conservation education programmes implemented by WCS across the Cross
River gorilla landscape.
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Gorilla guardian candidates are waiting to be interviewed. Photo: Amelia Stott, WCS Takamanda-Mone Landscape Project |
Potential gorilla guardians, selected from an interview process held in
their villages, were invited to the research station in the Kagwene Gorilla
Sanctuary for a 2-week training course/final selection starting at the
beginning of November. There they worked with permanent research staff
and government representatives to learn first-hand gorilla monitoring
techniques and other skills that they will need to perform their role
back in their own communities effectively.
We are doing our best to minimise the expectations of local communities
through this scheme, while at the same time encouraging them through their
gorilla guardians to adopt a more community led approach to the conservation
of Cross River gorillas and other endangered species. We very much hope
that over time the gorilla guardian system might evolve into a realistic
alternative to what local communities often perceive as a more top-down
protected area approach typical of parks, wildlife sanctuaries and the
like.
It will also be interesting to evaluate to what extent this scheme will
be successful in the absence of some kind of additional community level
benefits, especially as the goal for conservationists is not only to improve
the survival prospects for Cross River gorillas in specific sites such
as those targeted here, but also to maintain functional habitat connectivity
across the landscape.
Aaron Nicholas and Amelia Stott
We would like to express our particular thanks to both the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation for providing initial support to launch the gorilla guardian approach, and we look forward to keeping you informed of progress and lessons learned in due course.
Aaron Nicholas is the Director of
the Wildlife Conservation Society's Takamanda-Mone Landscape Project,
with the core focus of conserving the Cross River gorilla in Cameroon.
Amelia Stott is an international volunteer at the WCS Takamanda-Mone
Landscape Project.
Reference
Oates, J. et al. (2007): Regional Action Plan for the Conservation of
the Cross River Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli). IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist
Group and Conservation International, Arlington, VA, US.