Socfin Agricultural Company Concession

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Summary

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• Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) are present in the Socfin Agricultural Company concession area.
• The population size is unknown.
• The chimpanzee population trend is unknown.
• The site has a total size of 222 km².
• Key threats to chimpanzees are palm oil cultivation and expansion of human settlements.
• Conservation activities are not well documented.

Site characteristics

The area is located in the Malin Chiefdom, Pujehun District, in southern Sierra Leone. The concession area is about 222 km² and comprises large oil palm fields interspersed with secondary patches of forest, one to seven year old patches of farm bush, and small scale cassava plantations and other cultivated food crops.

Table 1. Basic site information for Socfin Agricultural Company Concession

Area	222 km²
Coordinates	7.440424, -11.888874
Designation	Concession area
Habitat types	Plantations, subtropical/tropical heavily degraded former forest

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

In 2019, a visit to the concession area revealed the presence of chimpanzee nests and feeding activity on palm trees, which confirms chimpanzee presence in the area (Kanneh pers. comm. 2023).

Table 2. Ape population estimates in Socfin Agricultural Company Concession

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	2019			Present	Socfin concession area	Unknown	Kanneh pers. comm. 2023

Threats

Table 3. Threats to apes in Socfin Agricultural Company Concession

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		Habitat modification resulting from the cultivation of oil palm (Kanneh pers. comm. 2023).	Ongoing (2023)
3. Energy production & mining		Unknown
4. Transportation & service corridors		Unknown
5. Biological resource use		Unknown
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 Socfin Agricultural Company Concession

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
10. Education & Awareness	10.1. Educate local communities about primates and sustainable use	There is some form of education and awareness raising happening (Turay & Kanneh 2022).	Ongoing (2022)
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 Socfin Agricultural Company Concession

Challenge	Source
Lack of capacity/training	Turay & Kanneh 2022
Conflict on land tenure	Turay & Kanneh 2022

Research activities

Documented behaviours

Table 6. Ape behaviors reported for Socfin Agricultural Company Concession

Behavior	Source
Not reported

References

Page completed by: Ansumana Babar Turay & Ambrose Bockarie Kanneh Date: 18/12/2022