WCS

This sub-species of western gorillas lives in a 700 km2 mountainous area straddling the border between Cameroon and Nigeria. Its decline is due to increasing habitat loss. Fragmentation of the forests is isolating groups from one another, making exchanges almost impossible. Also, the building of roads for logging or to open up remote villages has made it easier for hunters to get into the forests. Intensive hunting has caused a brutal fall in gorilla numbers and poaching continues to be a serious threat to such as small and fragmented population. Today Cross River gorillas survive only in steep areas that are extremely hard to get to. Their adaptability to this difficult terrain and the inaccessibility of the region, as well as certain taboos about the eating or sale of their meat, prevent them from being pushed towards extinction for now, but how long will this last?

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has managed the conservation of Cross River gorillas in Cameroon and Nigeria since 2001. Palmyre Conservation finances the Nigerian component of the program whose area of operation is located in the heart of the Mbe mountains halfway between 2 official reserves, the Cross River National Park in the east and the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary in the west. The region, which hosts 1/3 of the country’s gorillas, is surrounded by 9 communities totaling nearly 12,000 people.

16 eco-wardens from surrounding villages have the task of gathering data about the gorillas and organising anti-poaching patrols. Their work consists mainly of destroying hunters’ snares and camps discovered in the forest. Thanks to a satellite tracking system, the wardens can also assess the animals’ distribution and movements and evaluate threats to the population.