Monte Alén National Park

Central Africa > Equatorial Guinea > Monte Alén National Park

Summary

• Central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) & western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) are present in Monte Alén National Park.
• The population sizes are unknown.
• The great ape population trend is unknown.
• The site has a total size of 2,000 km².
• Key threats to great apes are hunting, logging, and habitat loss due to agricultural expansion.
• Conservation activities are not reported.

Site characteristics

Established in 1990, Monte Alén National Park is located in Equatorial Guinea. The size of the park was doubled in 1998 with the inclusion of Mount Mitra, and in 2000 another section to the south was added (BirdLife International 2020). Since 1992, the European-Union-funded ECOFAC program has been involved in the management of the park (Cadecott & Miles 2005).

Table 1. Basic site information for Monte Alén National Park

Area	2,000 km²
Coordinates	1.533574 N, 10.126031 E
Designation	National Park
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

The site has been identified as a priority area for gorillas and chimpanzees in Equatorial Guinea, as it holds very high ape and large mammal densities (Murai et al. 2013).

Table 2. Ape population estimates in Monte Alén 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 troglodytes & Gorilla gorilla gorilla

Threats

Table 3. Threats to apes in Monte Alén National Park

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Quantified severity	Description	Year of threat
1. Residential & commercial development		Unknown
2. Agriculture & aquaculture	2.1 Annual & perennial non-timber crops	Present, but threat is severity unknown		Agricultural expansion (Sunderland 2005; Kenfack 2014)	Ongoing (2014)
3. Energy production & mining		Unknown
4. Transportation & service corridors		Unknown
5. Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	High		Commercial trapping and hunting (Caldecott and Miles 2005; BirdLife International 2020).	Ongoing (2020)
	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	Present, but threat severity is unknown		Logging activity (Sunderland 2005; Kenfack 2014)	Ongoing (2014)
6. Human intrusion & disturbance		Unknown
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

INSERT PARAGRAPH(S)

Table 4. Conservation activities in Monte Alén 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 Monte Alén National Park

Challenge	Source
Volatility of funding	Kenfack 2014
Lack of capacity/training	Kenfack 2014

Research activities

Documented behaviours

Table 6. Ape behaviors reported for Monte Alén National Park

Behavior	Source
Not reported

External links

Relevant datasets

A.P.E.S Portal

References

BirdLife International. (2020). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Monte Alen National Park. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 10/12/2020.
Miles, J. O. C. L., & Annan, K. (2005). World atlas of great apes and their conservation. Univ of California Press. Murai M, Ruffler H, Berlemont A, Campbell G, Esono F, Agbor A, et al. (2013). Priority Areas for Large Mammal Conservation in Equatorial Guinea. PLoS ONE 8(9): e75024. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075024
Sunderland, T. C. H. (2005). A biodiversity assessment of the Monte Mitra forest, Monte Alén National Park, Equatorial Guinea. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Kenfack, C.E. (2014). El paisaje del Monte Alén /Montes de Cristal. CIFOR report, retrieved from: https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/brief/4507-brief.pdf

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