Save 2000 chimpanzees in West Africa

In Liberia, the Ebola Crisis has brought the country to standstill. A 90 state of emergency meant that no travel between counties could be done, causing field work led by the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (WCF) and its partners for the Proposed Grebo National Park to be paused momentarily. For three months, WCF and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) have not been able to access the forest to lead eco-guard missions. In the meantime, we are working the first detailed report of the new eco-guard program for the Proposed Grebo National Forest. Preliminary results show that the strategy developed has been highly efficient at covering all areas of the park systematically and has help pinpoint key areas within the proposed park that are very threatened by habitat disturbance. Patrols led by the eco-guards have shown that the extraction of a local plant, known locally as the “chewing stick” has developed in a large trade for West Africa and as such is destroying the natural habitat of chimpanzees, forest elephants and other unique wildlife. As a result, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) is now working on controlling the trade and reinforcing the law to prevent persons from extracting the chewing stick inside protected areas. The WCF continues to have regular contact with the FDA to ensure ecoguards will be able to head back to the forest as soon as possible to patrol and protect the wildlife of the Proposed Grebo National Park!!

Thankfully, the Ebola Crisis has not had any negative impact on the work in Côte d’Ivoire. WCF has continued to support the Office Ivorien des Parcs et Réserves (OIPR) and their law enforcement patrols across the Taï National Park. The mobile law enforcement brigade led numerous patrols in the months of July and August 2014, totally 1,175 man days over 21 missions. The OIPR arrested 5 poachers and 16 illegal gold miners as well as confiscated one gun. They also confiscated the meat of 19 bush duikers and 4 porcupines that were found with the poacher. The OIPR continue to execute a very impressive law enforcement program across the largest protected tropical forest of West Africa and in doing so are helping to protect some of the most endangered wildlife in the sub-region!