Advancing conservation planning for western chimpanzees using IUCN SSC A.P.E.S.—the case of a taxon-specific database

Abstract

Even though information on global biodiversity trends becomes increasingly available, large taxonomic and spatial data gaps persist at the scale relevant to planning conservation interventions. This is because data collectors are hesitant to share data with global repositories due to workload, lack of incentives, and perceived risk of losing intellectual property rights. In contrast, due to greater conceptual and methodological proximity, taxon-specific database initiatives can provide more direct benefits to data collectors through research collaborations and shared authorship. The IUCN SSC Ape Populations, Environments and Surveys (A.P.E.S.) database was created in 2005 as a repository for data on great apes and other primate taxa. It aims to acquire field survey data and make different types of data accessible, and OPEN ACCESS RECEIVED provide up-to-date species status information. To support the current update of the conservation action plan for western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) we compiled field surveys for this taxon from IUCN SSC A.P.E.S., 75% of which were unpublished. We used spatial modeling to infer total population size, range-wide density distribution, population connectivity and landscape-scale metrics. We estimated a total abundance of 52 800 (95% CI 17 577-96 564) western chimpanzees, of which only 17% occurred in national parks. We also found that 10% of chimpanzees live within 25 km of four multi-national 'development corridors' currently planned for West Africa. These large infrastructure projects aim to promote economic integration and agriculture expansion, but are likely to cause further habitat loss and reduce population connectivity. We close by demonstrating the wealth of conservation-relevant information derivable from a taxon-specific database like IUCN SSC A.P.E.S. and propose that a network of many more such databases could be created to provide the essential information to conservation that can neither be supplied by one-off projects nor by global repositories, and thus are highly complementary to existing initiatives.

Predicting range shifts of African apes under global change scenarios

“…Many African apes live in areas that are suitable for agricultural expansion and 58.7% of oil-palm concessions currently overlap with African ape ranges (Wich et al, 2014). Moreover, massive development corridors (Heinicke et al, 2019) and mining activities (Howard, 2019) in their geographic ranges are projected to expand considerably, and to disrupt ape habitat connectivity and accelerate habitat loss.…”

Towards systematic and evidence‐based conservation planning for western chimpanzees

“…In contrast, densities may have been overestimated for the Simandou and Kourandou ranges in eastern Guinea which are characterized by very dry conditions. Field surveys for data‐scarce areas are needed to ground‐truth the input chimpanzee density distribution and this analysis (details, including a map of survey gaps, in Heinicke et al, ). A further limitation is that we were able to consider only chimpanzee densities, which are naturally lower in savanna habitat (Pruetz & Bertolani, ).…”

“…Moyen Bafing in Guinea is in the final stages of official designation. Still, only 17% of chimpanzees occur in high‐level protected areas (including Moyen Bafing, Heinicke et al, ). While Figure b is of limited use for countries which harbor only a small part of the western chimpanzees' range (i.e., Ghana, Mali, Senegal), this analysis can inform the designation of protected areas in countries with the largest western chimpanzee populations (Figure b).…”

“…Second, chimpanzees differ strongly across sites regarding socially learned behaviors (e.g., Kühl et al, ; Whiten et al, ) and might also differ genetically. Consequently, sub‐scenario 1c ensures that areas from each population are selected, as delineated in Heinicke et al ().…”

“…The study was designed to inform the revision of a regional conservation action plan for western chimpanzees. Western chimpanzees still occur in eight West African countries (Humle et al, ) and the total population is currently estimated at around 52,800 individuals (Heinicke et al, ). In 2016, this taxon was uplisted to Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (Humle et al, ) because the population declined by 80% within 24 years (Kühl et al, ).…”