West Africa > Liberia > Margibi Mangrove Proposed Protected Area

Summary

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Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) are present in Margibi Mangrove Proposed Protected Area.
It has been estimated that more than 60 individuals occur at the site.
The chimpanzee population trend is unknown.
This site has a total size of 238.13 km².
Key threats to chimpanzees are.
The chimpanzees on Marshall Island depend on a team of caretakers for survival, as there is no food or fresh water on the islands.
Margibi Mangrove forms part of a Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) spanning Kpelle Forest and Lorma National Forest.

Site characteristics

Margibi Mangrove Proposed Protected Area is an important mangrove area and estuary of the Junk and Farmington Rivers, Margibi Mangrove is home to the Liberia Chimpanzee Colony (Johnson 2015). The area has approximately 35 kilometres of Atlantic coastline. The six islands on the wetland have been used by New York Blood Center (NYBC) who established a chimpanzee virus laboratory in West Africa in 1974. One of the purposes of VILAB II, at the Liberian Institute for Biomedical Research in Robertsfield, Liberia, was to develop the hepatitis B vaccine in chimpanzees. Chimpanzees were captured from various parts of West Africa and brought to VILAB. When the lab closed down in 2005, the remaining chimpanzees were released on islands in Marshall Wetland. Currently, more than 60 chimpanzees inhabit the islands. Their original carers, many of whom have worked with the chimps since the 1970s, were paid to take them food and water every other day. Then, at the height of the Ebola epidemic in 2014, the caretakers stopped going to the island and the apes began to starve. In 2015, the Humane Society decided to take on the care of the chimps and in 2017 the NYBC pledged £5 million to pay for their future food and medical needs.

Table 1. Basic site information for Margibi Mangrove Proposed Protected Area

Area	238.13 km²
Coordinates	6.160000, -10.370000
Designation	Proposed Protected Area
Habitat types	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland Forest

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

No information was found about how many chimpanzees were initially released on the islands. Apparently, 63 chimpanzees currently still inhabit the islands. They are taken care of by staff of the Humane Society, financed by the NYBC after much public outcry in 2015, when NYBCs original funding to care for the released lab chimpanzees ran out Mail Online.

Table 2. Great ape population estimates in Margibi Mangrove Proposed Protected Area

Species	Year	Abundance estimate (95% CI)	Density estimate [ind./ km²] (95% CI)	Encounter rate (nests/km)	Area	Method	Source	Comments	A.P.E.S. database ID
Pan troglodytes verus	2017	63			Margibi Mangrove Proposed Protected Area	Full count	Mail Online 2017	Chimpanzees introduced into non-inhabited habitat on islands on the Liberian coast

Threats

The chimpanzees who are trapped on the islands (which is artificial habitat for them) depend on humans to bring them food and drinking water on a daily basis for survival. If funding ends or if there is nobody taking care of them, they will die of thirst or starve to death.

Table 3. Threats to great apes in Margibi Mangrove Proposed Protected Area

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Quantified severity	Description	Year of threat
1. Residential & commercial development		Absent
2. Agriculture & aquaculture		Absent
3. Energy production & mining		Absent
4. Transportation & service corridors		Absent
5. Biological resource use		Absent
6. Human intrusions & disturbance		Unknown
7. Natural system modifications		Absent
8. Invasive & other problematic species, genes, diseases		Unknown
9. Pollution		Unknown
10. Geological Events		Absent
11. Climate change & severe weather		Unknown
12. Other options		Absent

IUCN Threats list

Conservation activities

Although chimpanzee reintroduction/translocation and rehabilitation are conservation activities listed for primates (Junker et al. 2017), we refrain from listing the release of the Liberian laboratory chimpanzees on Marshall islands as a conservation activity, as this was a way for the NYBC to allow these chimpanzees to “retire” from the invasive research that was done on them in the center for more than 30 years. It was not a conservation activity per se.

Table 4. Conservation activities in Margibi Mangrove Proposed Protected Area

Category	Specific activity	Description	Year of activity
1. Residential & commercial development	Not reported
2. Agriculture & aquaculture	Not reported
3. Energy production & mining	Not reported
4. Transportation & service corridors	Not reported
5. Biological resource use	Not reported
6. Human intrusions & disturbance	Not reported
7. Natural system modifications	Not reported
8. Invasive & other problematic species, genes, diseases	Not reported
9. Pollution	Not reported
10. Education & Awareness	Not reported
11. Habitat Protection	Not reported
12. Species Management	Not reported
13. Livelihood; Economic & Other Incentives	Not reported

Conservation activities list (Junker et al. 2017)

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Margibi Mangrove Proposed Protected Area

Challenge	Source
Not reported

Research activities

No information on research activities has been documented.

Documented behaviours

Table 6. Great ape behaviors reported for Margibi Mangrove Proposed Protected Area

Behavior	Source
Not reported

References

Johnson S. 2015. Aggregated Biodiversity Offsets: A Roadmap for Liberia’s Mining Sector. Unpublished report by the World Bank Group (WBG) and Program On Forests (PROFOR).
Junker J, Orth L, Kühl H S, Smith R K, Sutherland W J 2017. Primate Conservation: Global Evidence for the Effects of Interventions. University of Cambridge.
Mail Online. 2017. Hand of friendship: Chimps left to starve on monkey island by health research company are thriving after volunteers canoe in to feed them bananas and coconuts. Online: www.dailymail.co.uk

Page completed by: A.P.E.S. Wiki Team Date: 25/10/2019

Margibi Mangrove Proposed Protected Area

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