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Applying environmental education in primate range countries is an important long-term activity to stimulate pro-conservation behavior. Within captive settings, mega-charismatic species, such as great apes are often used to increase knowledge and positively influence attitudes of visitors. Here, we evaluate the effectiveness of a short-term video and theater program developed for a Western audience and adapted to rural people living in two villages around Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, Republic of Congo. We assessed the knowledge gain and attitude change using oral evaluation in the local language (N = 111). Overall pre-program knowledge about Western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) was high. Detailed multivariate analysis of pre-program knowledge revealed differences in knowledge between two villages and people with different jobs while attitudes largely were similar between groups. The short-term education program was successful in raising knowledge, particularly of those people with less pre-program knowledge. We also noted an overall significant attitude improvement. Our data indicate short-term education programs are useful in quickly raising knowledge as well improving attitudes. Furthermore, education messages need to be clearly adapted to the daily livelihood realities of the audience, and multi-variate analysis can help to identify potential target groups for education programs.

Human-elephant conflict is a common conservation problem throughout Africa, but poorly studied where forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) occur. Here, we investigated people's perceptions towards the impact of elephants around Nouabal e-Ndoki National Park, northern Congo. We aimed to understand the perceptual differences amongst residents of four villages that varied substantially in the degree of conservation benefits received. We used a multivariate analysis to investigate how socioeconomic variables, such as employment, wealth, education and ethnicity, influenced perceptions. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, we found that the majority of respondents experienced elephant impacts, mainly through crop raiding. Residents of the village where the local conservation project is based had significantly more positive perceptions of elephants, whereas perceptions of farmers were mostly negative. We identified some misunderstandings regarding the responsibilities of elephant impact mitigation regarding benefit sharing, stakeholder involvement and lawbreaking, but also willingness to apply mitigation measures. To mitigate the prevalent impact of elephants, a comprehensive approach of measuring impact, exploring community-based mitigating strategies and understanding of the root causes of the conflict is crucial. We propose a long-term programme within logging concessions organizing groups of farmers to cooperate on mitigation techniques and explore alternative incomes. R esum eLes conflits hommes-el ephants sont un probl eme r ecurrent dans toute l'Afrique, mais ils sont mal etudi es l a o u vivent les el ephants de forêt (Loxodonta cyclotis). Ici, nous avons enquêt e sur la perception qu'ont les gens des impacts des el ephants aux alentours du Parc National de Nouabal e-Ndoki, au nord du Congo. Nous voulions comprendre les diff erences de perception chez les r esidents de quatre villages qui diff eraient sensiblement quant au niveau de b en efices qu'ils tiraient de la conservation. Nous avons utilis e une analyse multivari ee pour chercher comment des variables socio-economiques telles que l'emploi, la sant e, l' education et l'appartenance ethnique influenc ßaient cette perception. Au moyen de donn ees qualitatives et quantitatives, nous avons d ecouvert que la majorit e des participants avaient subi des impacts d' el ephants, principalement des dommages aux cultures. Les r esidents du village o u est bas e le projet local de conservation avaient une perception

Unsustainable hunting of bushmeat has dramatic impacts on ecological processes and people's livelihoods. Unfortunately, there is often a strong controversy regarding the sustainability of duiker hunting due to their continued presence in bushmeat markets, on the one hand, and the predictions of sustainable harvest models for duiker abundance, on the other. This apparent contradiction is largely due to biased low abundance estimates from dung surveys. We present results from a 52.4 km line transect dung survey using site decay rates to estimate duiker densities. In addition, camera trapping (14,995 camera trap-days) was used to provide detection rates and a baseline for the ratio of blue to red duikers as an index of hunting pressure from Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, with almost zero levels of hunting. Dung surveys revealed high overall duiker densities (totalling 107.4 duikers per km 2 ) and quick dung decay rate. Camera trapping revealed high-duiker detection rates and a high ratio of red to blue duikers. Pristine protected areas and no-hunting zones continue to act as source habitats for high recruitment of harvested species. We discuss future options for monitoring duikers and applying the ratio of red to blue duikers as an index of the level of duiker hunting. K E Y W O R D Sbiomonitoring, camera trapping, Congo Basin, duikers, dung survey, line transect RésuméMalheureusement, il y a souvent une forte controverse autour de la durabilité de la chasse au céphalophe par sa présence continue sur les marchés de viande en brousse, d'une part, et les prévisions de modèles durables des récoltes liés à l'abondance des céphalophes, d'autre part. Cette contradiction apparente est en grande partie due aux estimations incorrectes faites par le faible nombre des prélèvements des excréments. Nous présentons les résultats d'un relevé des excréments en transects linéaires de 52,4 km en utilisant les taux de décomposition du site pour estimer la densité des céphalophes. En outre, le piégeage photographique (14,995 jours-pièges photographiques) a été utilisé pour fournir des taux de détection et une base de référence pour le rapport entre les céphalophes bleus et les rouges comme indice de la

Primate populations are declining throughout tropical Africa. Great apes are threatened from extinction despite the existence of wildlife laws that fully protect them in their range states. But, due to a lack of knowledge and understanding of these laws, they remain largely ineffective. There is, therefore, a crucial need to improve awareness of wildlife laws in Congo. We conducted an education campaign and tested the effectiveness of two communication tools (wildlife law flyer and gorilla/pet‐trade comic book) in increasing school children's knowledge in rural and urban settings using evaluation questionnaires. We found extremely low precampaign knowledge of wildlife laws but detected a moderate increase of knowledge attributed to our communication tools. We discuss the usefulness of different communication tools and their relevance for knowledge increase with different audiences. Our study provides insights into the design of education campaigns, most notably the use of flyers and booklets, which can help to increase knowledge. Evaluations can help to improve the design of education campaigns, particularly message wording and identification of appropriate communication tools with the goal of improving compliance with wildlife laws.