Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve

Central Africa > Cameroon > Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve

Summary

• Central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) & western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) are present in Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve.
• It has been estimated that 11,345 individuals occur in the site.
• The great ape population trend is decreasing.
• The site has a total size of 1,566.72 km².
• Key threats to great apes are logging, hunting, mining, and clearing forest for agriculture.
• Conservation activities are not documented.

Site characteristics

The Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve is situated in southeastern Cameroon. Located between Nki National Park and Dja Biosphere Reserve, the site is also part of the TRIDOM conservation landscape (WWF). In 2014, the government of Cameroon, in collaboration with WWF and the World Bank, created the reserve. Along with the reserve, five new forestry concessions were created, covering nearly 500,000 ha in the same forest block (Ngoyla Mintom forest block), on the lands belonging to the indigenous Baka and Bantu peoples (FPP 2019). Mammal species inhabiting the site include forest elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, mandrills, buffalos, bongos, sitatungas, panthers, duikers, water chevrotains; more than 280 bird species and 230 fish species are also found at the site (WWF).

Table 1. Basic site information for Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve

Area	1,566.72 km²
Coordinates	2.657628 N, 13.788269 E
Designation	Wildlife Reserve
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical/tropical swamp forest

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

Great ape abundance declined between 2011 and 2015 (N'Goran 2017).

Table 2. Ape population estimates in Ngoyla Wildlife 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 & Pan troglodytes troglodytes	2011	20,076			Ngoyla Mintom forests	Line transects (Distance)	N'Goran 2017
Gorilla gorilla gorilla & Pan troglodytes troglodytes	2015	11,345			Ngoyla Mintom forests	Line transects (Distance)	N'Goran 2017

Threats

Table 3. Threats to apes in Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Quantified severity	Description	Year of threat
1. Residential & commercial development		Absent
2. Agriculture & aquaculture	2.1 Annual & perennial non-timber crops	Present, but threat severity unknown		Expansion of slash and burn agriculture (WWF n.d.).	Ongoing
3. Energy production & mining	3.2 Mining & quarrying	Present, but threat severity unknown		Industrial and artisanal mining (WWF n.d.).	Ongoing
4. Transportation & service corridors	4.1 Roads & railroads	Present, but threat severity unknown		Logging roads facilitate access to the forest and illegal hunting and bushmeat trade (Mbom & Akana 2017).	Ongoing (2017)
5. Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	High		Bushmeat poaching (N'Goran 2017, WWF n.d.).	Ongoing (2017)
5. Biological resource use	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	Present, but threat severity unknown		Industrial timber exploitation and illegal small scale logging (WWF n.d.).	Ongoing (2017)
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 Ngoyla Wildlife 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	Not reported
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	13.1. Provide monetary benefits to local communities for sustainably managing their forest and its wildlife (e.g. REDD, employment)	Promotion of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) and REDD + initiatives (WWF n.d.).	Unknown

Conservation activities list (Junker et al. 2017)

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve

Challenge	Source
Not reported

Research activities

Documented behaviours

Table 6. Ape behaviors reported for Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve

Behavior	Source
Not reported

External links

Relevant datasets

A.P.E.S Portal

References

N'Goran, K.P. (2017). Summary Report on WWF BIOMONITORING activities from 2014 to 2016 Status of Forest Elephant and Great Apes in Central Africa Priority Sites.
WWF (n.d.).Ngoyla-Mintom Project. Online: https://www.wwf-congobasin.org/where_we_work/cameroon/ngoyla_mintom_/
Mbom, S. & Akana, D. (2017). The Road to Destruction? Online:https://infocongo.org/en/the-road-to-destruction/
FPP (2019). There’s a long, long way to go: the story of FPIC in Cameroon’s Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve

Page completed by: A.P.E.S. Wiki team Date: 14/11/2021