Kakum National Park

West Africa > Ghana > Kakum National Park

Summary

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• Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) may be present in Kakum National Park.
• No chimpanzees were recorded in the last survey.
• The chimpanzee population trend is decreasing.
• The site has a total size of 375 km².
• Key threats to chimpanzees are hunting and logging.
• Conservation activities are not documented.

Site characteristics

Kakum National Park is located in southern Ghana. The terrain is generally flat, with a few hills in the southwestern part of the park, rising up to 250 m above sea level (Gatti 2009). The area was demarcated as a forest reserve in the 1930s, thereby protecting the watersheds of Kakum river and other rivers that supply water to Caper Coast and nearby areas (Gatti 2009). The Kakum Conservation Area was legally gazetted in 1992, consisting of Kakum National Park and Assin Attandanso Forest Reserve. It falls under the administrative jurisdiction of the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission (Gatti 2009).

Table 1. Basic site information for Kakum National Park

Area	375 km²
Coordinates	5.485273 N, -1.344909 W
Designation	National Park
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical dry forest, subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

A rapid survey was conducted at the site in 2009; except for calls of a group of Lowe's Mona monkeys, Cercopithecus lowei, no other primate species were detected at the site (Gatti 2009).

Table 2. Ape population estimates in Kakum National Park

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			0	Kakum National Park	Index survey (reconnaissance walk)	Gatti 2009	survey effort: 33.38 km

Threats

Table 3. Threats to apes in Kakum National Park

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	Medium	0.120 hunting signs/km recorded in a 2009 survey (Gatti 2009).	Relative to other sites in southwestern Ghana, hunting pressure is lower, likely due to the presence of wildlife guards (Gatti 2009).	Ongoing (2009)
	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	High		Timber exploitation, which came to a stop with the change in management status, but overall the forest is heavily disturbed (Gatti 2009).	1936-1989
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 Kakum National Park

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	Not reported

Conservation activities list (Junker et al. 2017)

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Kakum National Park

Challenge	Source
Not reported

Research activities

Documented behaviours

Table 6. Ape behaviors reported for Kakum National Park

Behavior	Source
Not reported

External links

Kakum National Park - nationalparks.org

References

Gatti, S. (2009). Mammal surveys and capacity building for the Wildlife Wood Project - Ghana. Unpublished report to the WWP-Ghana.

Page completed by: A.P.E.S. Wiki team Date: 18/03/2022