Blei Community Forest

West Africa > Liberia > Blei Community Forest

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

Area	6.29 km²
Coordinates
Designation	Community Forest
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

Table 2. Ape population estimates in Blei Community Forest

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	2009	ABUNDANCE ESTIMATE	DENSITY ESTIMATE	ENCOUNTER RATE	AREA	METHOD	SOURCE	COMMENTS

Threats

Mining of iron ore and poaching (Zansi 2022).

Table 3. Threats to apes in Blei Community Forest

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Quantified severity	Description	Year of threat
1. Residential & commercial development		Unknown
2. Agriculture & aquaculture		Unknown
3. Energy production & mining	3.2 Mining & quarrying	High		Iron ore exploration by Solway Mining Company (Zansi 2022).	2019
4. Transportation & service corridors		Unknown
5. Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	Medium		Gun and snares hunting (Zansi 2022).	Ongoing (2022).
	5.2 Gathering terrestrial plants	Medium		Collection of NFTPs (Zansi 2022).	Ongoing (2022).
6. Human intrusion & disturbance		Unknown
7. Natural system modifications		Unknown
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

Table 4. Conservation activities in Blei Community Forest

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	5.6. 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)
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	Not reported

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

Challenge	Source
Lack of financial means	Zansi 2022
Lack of capacity/training	Zansi 2022

Research activities

Ongoing chimpanzee and large mammals survey (Zansi 2022).

Documented behaviours

Table 6. Ape behaviors reported for Blei Community Forest

Behavior	Source
Not reported

References

Page completed by: Grace Kotee Zansi Date: 19/12/2022