Lac Télé Community Reserve

Central Africa > Republic of the Congo > Lac Télé Community Reserve

Summary

• Central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) & western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) are present in Lac Télé Community Reserve.
• It has been estimated that 7,647 (4,044–12,183) gorillas and chimpanzees occur in the site.
• The population trends are unknown.
• The site has a total size of 4,400 km².
• Key threats to great apes are hunting and logging.
• Conservation activities have focused on monitoring with SMART, anti-poaching patrols, and providing alternative forms of income to reduce the bushmeat trade.

Site characteristics

Lac Télé Community Reserve is located in the northeastern Republic of the Congo. Consisting of 70% wetland, Lac Télé Community Reserve is one of the world's largest swamp-forest (WCS). The site is located between the Sangha and Oubangui rivers, which seasonally flood the forest, grassland, and floating prairies, and pump water into the lakes, ponds and rivers found at the site. In the centre of the reserve lies an area of firm land, which is an important habitat for gorillas (WCS). The reserve supports one of the densest populations of western lowland gorillas, and it is also home to chimpanzees, elephants, buffaloes, duikers, and hippopotamuses (Ramsar). The reserve was designated a Ramsar site in 1998. In 2017, the Lac Tumba Transboundary Ramsar Site was established, which includes Lac Télé and Grands Affluents in Congo, as well as Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Ramsar). The reserve is owned by the local communities; approximately 20,000 people in the reserve (WCS; Ramsar). These communities heavily depend on the reserve's natural resources for fish, agriculture, construction materials canoes, and medicines (WCS; Ramsar).

Table 1. Basic site information for Lac Télé Community Reserve

Area	4,400 km²
Coordinates	1.316971 N, 17.223215 E
Designation	Community Reserve
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical swamp forest, Wetlands (inland) – Bogs, marshes, swamps, fens, peatlands

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

Table 2. Ape population estimates in Lac Télé Community Reserve

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
Gorilla gorilla gorilla	2007	5,402 (2,778–10,486)			1,029 km2 of the south-eastern Reserve periphery including Raphia swamp forests	Line transects (Distance)	Rainey et al. 2010
Pan troglodytes troglodytes & Gorilla gorilla gorilla	2007	7,647 (4,044–12,183)			1,029 km2 of the south-eastern Reserve periphery including Raphia swamp forests	Line transects (Distance)	Rainey et al. 2010

Threats

Table 3. Threats to apes in Lac Télé Community Reserve

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Quantified severity	Description	Year of threat
1. Residential & commercial development		Unknown
2. Agriculture & aquaculture		Unknown
3. Energy production & mining		Unknown
4. Transportation & service corridors		Unknown
5. Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	Present, but threat severity is unknown		Mammal species hunted for commercial bushmeat markets, not only locally, but also in urban areas further away, e.g., in Kinshasa (WCS).	Ongoing
5. Biological resource use	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	Low		Deforestation concentrated along the rivers and in terra firma forests. Trees are logged mainly for firewood collection and slash-and-burn agriculture. Although at the moment is it small-scale, the threat is expected to increase as road networks expand in the area (WCS).	Ongoing
6. Human intrusion & disturbance		Absent
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

The reserve is managed by the Ministry of Forest Economy (MEF) in partnership with WCS Congo.

Table 4. Conservation activities in Lac Télé Community Reserve

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	5.11. Provide training to anti-poaching ranger patrols	WCS Congo, together with the Government of Congo, are recruiting and training rangers to patrol and protect the landscape and its wildlife (WCS).	Ongoing
	5.15. Implement monitoring surveillance strategies (e.g. SMART) or use monitoring data to improve effectiveness of wildlife law enforcement patrols	Provide rangers with training on the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART)(WCS).	Ongoing
6. Human intrusion & 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	13.2. Provide non-monetary benefits to local communities for sustainably managing their forest and its wildlife (e.g. better education, infrastructure development)	Providing alternative forms of income (to reduce bushmeat trade) by developing and implementing a cocoa conservation management program; sustainable fisheries and commerce of dried fish; and a micro-credit program (WCS).	Ongoing

Conservation activities list (Junker et al. 2017)

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Lac Télé Community Reserve

Challenge	Source
Not reported

Research activities

Documented behaviours

Table 6. Ape behaviors reported for Lac Télé Community Reserve

Behavior	Source
Not reported

External links

WCS Lac Télé Community Reserve
Ramsar Lac Télé/Likouala-aux-herbes

Relevant datasets

A.P.E.S Portal

References

Rainey, H. J., Iyenguet, F. C., Malanda, G.-A. F., Madzoké, B., Santos, D. D., Stokes, E. J., Maisels, F., & Strindberg, S. (2010). Survey of Raphia swamp forest, Republic of Congo, indicates high densities of Critically Endangered western lowland gorillas Gorilla gorilla gorilla. Oryx, 44(01), 124. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003060530999010X

Page completed by: A.P.E.S. Wiki team Date: 29/12/2020