Summary

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Central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) & western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) are present in Minkébé National Park.
The population sizes are unknown.
The population trends are unknown.
The site has a total size of 7,535 km².
Key threats to great apes are hunting, mining, logging, and diseases, specifically Ebola Virus Disease.
Conservation activities are not documented.

Site characteristics

Minkébé National Park is situated in northeast Gabon, bordering Cameroon to the north and Republic of Congo to the east. The forest in Minkébé is extremely rich in bird biodiversity, and has been designated an Important Bird Area (BirdLife International 2020). Minkébé is the name of an ancient village and colonial post that was built on a ridge and abandoned in the 1930s (BirdLife International 2020). The site forms part of the Tri-National Dja-Odzala-Minkébé (TRIDOM) transboundary conservation landscape, spread across Gabon, Cameroon, and the Republic of Congo (WWF).

Table 1. Basic site information for Minkébé National Park

Species	'Pan troglodytes troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla gorilla
Area	7,535 km²
Coordinates	Lat: 1.813136 , Lon: 12.569964
Type of site	Protected area (National Park)
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical swamp forest, Subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest, Subtropical/tropical dry forest, Wetlands (lakes, rivers, streams, bogs, marshes)
Type of governance

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

Table 2. Ape population estimates reported for Minkébé National Park

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 troglodytes & Gorilla gorilla gorilla	2012		0.3 (1.2-12)			Minkébé National Park	Line transects		ANPN 2013

Threats

Poaching is a major threat, not just to great apes- between 2004 and 2014, more than 25,000 forest elephants were killed for their ivory in Minkébé, representing a 78-81% population decline (Poulsen et al. 2017). Gold mining has also been a major threat. In 2011, the Gabonese National Parks Agency (Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux / ANPN) and the Gabonese military expelled over 6,000 gold miners; illegal mining camps had grown exponentially as a result of soaring gold prices over the previous 2-3 years. Severe elephant poaching and other illegal activities were linked to these camps (ANPN 2013).

Table 3. Threats to apes reported for Minkébé National Park

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)	Gold extraction and presence of several illegal gold camps, in the park and in its buffer zone (BirdLife International 2020; ANPN 2013).	Ongoing (2020)
5 Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	High (more than 70% of population affected)	Commercial hunting for local bushmeat trade (BirdLife International 2020). Hunting camps and huntings signs (gun shots, trails, elephant carcasses) present at the park during a 2012 survey (ANPN 2013).	Ongoing (2020)
8 Invasive & other problematic species, genes & diseases	8.4 Pathogens	High (more than 70% of population affected)	Extremely low densities of gorillas and chimpanzees were found between 1998-2000, compared to data collected before 1994. The decline resulted from Ebola outbreaks in 1994 and 1996 in the area (Huijbregts et al. 2003; Walsh et al. 2003).	1994, 1996
5 Biological resource use	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	Present (unknown severity)	Logging (BirdLife International 2020).	Ongoing (2020)
1 Residential & commercial development		Unknown
2 Agriculture & aquaculture		Unknown
4 Transportation & service corridors		Unknown
6 Human intrusions & disturbance		Unknown
7 Natural system modifications		Unknown
9 Pollution		Unknown
11 Climate change & severe weather		Unknown

IUCN Threats list

Conservation activities

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Minkébé National Park

Challenges	Specific challenges	Source	Year(s)
	Not reported

Enablers

Table 6. Enablers reported for Minkébé National Park

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

Documented behaviours

Table 7. Behaviours documented for Minkébé National Park

Behavior	Source
Not reported

Exposure to climate change impacts

External links

Relevant datasets

References

BirdLife International. (2020) .Important Bird Areas factsheet: Minkébé Forest Reserve. Retrieved from http://www.birdlife.org on 04/11/2020.

Huijbregts, B., De Wachter, P., Obiang, L., & Akou, M. (2003). Ebola and the decline of gorilla Gorilla gorilla and chimpanzee Pan troglodytes populations in Minkebe Forest, north-eastern Gabon. Oryx, 37(4), 437-443. doi:10.1017/S0030605303000802

Walsh, P., Abernethy, K., Bermejo, M. et al. (2003). Catastrophic ape decline in western equatorial Africa. Nature 422, 611–614. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01566

ANPN. (2013). Wildlife surveying in Minkebe National Park, 2012 – WCS-WWF collaboration. Online: https://www.wwf.de/fileadmin/fm-wwf/Publikationen-PDF/Preliminary_Results_of_Minkebe_Pilot_Study_070213.pdf

Poulsen, J. R., Koerner, S. E., Moore, S., Medjibe, V. P., Blake, S., Clark, C. J., Akou, M. E., Fay, M., Meier, A., Okouyi, J., Rosin, C., & White, L. J. T. (2017). Poaching empties critical Central African wilderness of forest elephants. Current Biology, 27(4), R134-R135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.01.023

Page created by: A.P.E.S. Wiki team Date: NA

Minkébé National Park

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