Blei Community Forest

West Africa > Liberia > Blei Community Forest

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Summary

• Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) are present in Blei Community Forest.
• The population size is unknown.
• The chimpanzee population trend is decreasing.
• The site has a total size of 6.29 km².
• Key threats to chimpanzees are iron ore mining and poaching.
• Conservation activities have focused on poaching patrols.

Site characteristics

The Blei community is adjacent to the east Nimba nature reserve. Characterised by the Blei Mountain, which harbours a chimpanzee population (Zansi 2022).

Table 1. Basic site information for Blei Community Forest

Species	'Pan troglodytes verus
Area	6.29 km²
Coordinates
Type of site	Non-protected area (Community Forest)
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest
Type of governance

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

Table 2. Ape population estimates reported for Blei Community Forest

Species	Year	Occurrence	Encounter or vistation rate (nests/km; ind/day)	Density estimate [ind./ km²] (95% CI)	Abundance estimate (95% CI)	Survey area	Sampling method	Analytical framework	Source	Comments	A.P.E.S. database ID
Pan troglodytes verus	2009						Unknown

Threats

Mining of iron ore and poaching (Zansi 2022).

Table 3. Threats to apes reported for Blei Community Forest

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Description	Year of threat
10 Geological events		Absent
12 Other threat		Absent
3 Energy production & mining	3.2 Mining & quarrying	High (more than 70% of population affected)	Iron ore exploration by Solway Mining Company (Zansi 2022).	2019
5 Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	Medium (30-70% of population affected)	Gun and snares hunting (Zansi 2022).	Ongoing (2022)
5 Biological resource use	5.2 Gathering terrestrial plants	Medium (30-70% of population affected)	Collection of NFTPs (Zansi 2022).	Ongoing (2022)
1 Residential & commercial development		Unknown
2 Agriculture & aquaculture		Unknown
4 Transportation & service corridors		Unknown
6 Human intrusions & disturbance		Unknown
7 Natural system modifications		Unknown
8 Invasive & other problematic species, genes & diseases		Unknown
9 Pollution		Unknown
11 Climate change & severe weather		Unknown

IUCN Threats list

Conservation activities

Table 4. Conservation activities reported for Blei Community Forest

Category	Specific activity	Description	Implementing organization(s)	Year of activity
2 Counter-wildlife crime	2.3 Conduct regular anti-poaching patrols	Regular anti-poaching patrol, community awareness and livelihood program for forest dependent supported by AML in partnership with FDA (Zansi 2022).		Ongoing (2022)

Conservation activities list (Junker et al. 2017)

Challenges

No funding to conduct research, limited capacity (Zansi 2022).

Table 5. Challenges reported for Blei Community Forest

Challenges	Specific challenges	Source	Year(s)
2 Resources and capacity	2.3 General lack of funding	Zansi 2022
2 Resources and capacity	2.1 Lack of capacity/training	Zansi 2022

Enablers

Table 6. Enablers reported for Blei Community Forest

Enablers	Specific enablers	Source	Year(s)
1 Site management
2 Resources and capacity
3 Engaged community
4 Institutional support
5 Ecological context
6 Safety and stability

Research activities

Ongoing chimpanzee and large mammals survey (Zansi 2022).

Documented behaviours

Table 7. Behaviours documented for Blei Community Forest

Behavior	Source
Not reported

References

Page created by: Grace Kotee Zansi Date: NA