Minkébé National Park
Central Africa > Gabon > Minkébé National Park
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Summary
- Central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) & western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) are present in Minkébé National Park.
- The population sizes are unknown.
- The population trends are unknown.
- The site has a total size of 7,535 km².
- Key threats to great apes are hunting, mining, logging, and diseases, specifically Ebola Virus Disease.
- Conservation activities are not documented.
Site characteristics
Minkébé National Park is situated in northeast Gabon, bordering Cameroon to the north and Republic of Congo to the east. The forest in Minkébé is extremely rich in bird biodiversity, and has been designated an Important Bird Area (BirdLife International 2020). Minkébé is the name of an ancient village and colonial post that was built on a ridge and abandoned in the 1930s (BirdLife International 2020). The site forms part of the Tri-National Dja-Odzala-Minkébé (TRIDOM) transboundary conservation landscape, spread across Gabon, Cameroon, and the Republic of Congo (WWF).
Table 1. Basic site information for Minkébé National Park
| Species | Gorilla gorilla gorilla, Pan troglodytes troglodytes |
| Area | 7,535 km² |
| Coordinates | Lat: 1.813136 N , Lon: 12.569964 E |
| Type of site | Protected area (National Park) |
| Habitat types | Subtropical/tropical swamp forest, Subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest, Subtropical/tropical dry forest, Wetlands (lakes, rivers, streams, bogs, marshes) |
| Type of governance |
IUCN habitat categories Site designations
Ape status
Table 2. Ape population estimates reported for Minkébé 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gorilla gorilla gorilla & Pan troglodytes troglodytes | 2012 | 0.3 (1.2-12) | Minkébé National Park | Line transects | ANPN 2013 |
Threats
Poaching is a major threat, not just to great apes- between 2004 and 2014, more than 25,000 forest elephants were killed for their ivory in Minkébé, representing a 78-81% population decline (Poulsen et al. 2017). Gold mining has also been a major threat. In 2011, the Gabonese National Parks Agency (Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux / ANPN) and the Gabonese military expelled over 6,000 gold miners; illegal mining camps had grown exponentially as a result of soaring gold prices over the previous 2-3 years. Severe elephant poaching and other illegal activities were linked to these camps (ANPN 2013).
Table 3. Threats to apes reported for Minkébé National Park
| Category | Specific threats | Threat level | Description | Year of threat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Residential & commercial development | Unknown | |||
| 2 Agriculture & aquaculture | Unknown | |||
| 3 Energy production & mining | 3.2 Mining & quarrying | High | Gold extraction and presence of several illegal gold camps, in the park and in its buffer zone (BirdLife International 2020; ANPN 2013). | Ongoing (2020) |
| 4 Transportation & service corridors | Unknown | |||
| 5 Biological resource use | 5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals | High | Commercial hunting for local bushmeat trade (BirdLife International 2020). Hunting camps and huntings signs (gun shots, trails, elephant carcasses) present at the park during a 2012 survey (ANPN 2013). | Ongoing (2020) |
| 5 Biological resource use | 5.3 Logging & wood harvesting | Present, but threat severity is unknown | Logging (BirdLife International 2020). | Ongoing (2020) |
| 6 Human intrusions & disturbance | Unknown | |||
| 7 Natural system modifications | Unknown | |||
| 8 Invasive & other problematic species, genes & diseases | 8.4 Pathogens | High | Extremely low densities of gorillas and chimpanzees were found between 1998-2000, compared to data collected before 1994. The decline resulted from Ebola outbreaks in 1994 and 1996 in the area (Huijbregts et al. 2003; Walsh et al. 2003). | Ongoing |
| 9 Pollution | Unknown | |||
| 10 Geological events | Absent | |||
| 11 Climate change & severe weather | Unknown | |||
| 12 Other threat | Absent |
Conservation activities
Challenges
Table 5. Challenges reported for Minkébé National Park
| Challenges | Specific challenges | Source | Year(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Not reported |
Enablers
Table 6. Enablers reported for Minkébé National Park
| Enablers | Specific enablers | Source | Year(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Site management | |||
| 2 Resources and capacity | |||
| 3 Engaged community | |||
| 4 Institutional support | |||
| 5 Ecological context | |||
| 6 Safety and stability |
Research activities
Documented behaviours
Table 7. Behaviours documented for Minkébé National Park
| Behavior | Source |
|---|---|
| Not reported |
Exposure to climate change impacts
External links
Relevant datasets
References
BirdLife International. (2020) .Important Bird Areas factsheet: Minkébé Forest Reserve. Retrieved from http://www.birdlife.org on 04/11/2020.
Huijbregts, B., De Wachter, P., Obiang, L., & Akou, M. (2003). Ebola and the decline of gorilla Gorilla gorilla and chimpanzee Pan troglodytes populations in Minkebe Forest, north-eastern Gabon. Oryx, 37(4), 437-443. doi:10.1017/S0030605303000802
Walsh, P., Abernethy, K., Bermejo, M. et al. (2003). Catastrophic ape decline in western equatorial Africa. Nature 422, 611–614. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01566
ANPN. (2013). Wildlife surveying in Minkebe National Park, 2012 – WCS-WWF collaboration. Online: https://www.wwf.de/fileadmin/fm-wwf/Publikationen-PDF/Preliminary_Results_of_Minkebe_Pilot_Study_070213.pdf
Poulsen, J. R., Koerner, S. E., Moore, S., Medjibe, V. P., Blake, S., Clark, C. J., Akou, M. E., Fay, M., Meier, A., Okouyi, J., Rosin, C., & White, L. J. T. (2017). Poaching empties critical Central African wilderness of forest elephants. Current Biology, 27(4), R134-R135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.01.023
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