Chimpanzees have been listed on IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species for over three decades, and have been recognised as an endangered species since 1996 as their populations continue to decline (IUCN, 2010). The future of this endangered species is uncertain and urgency to protect their habitat is acute. Chimpanzees are important in their own right; however they also serve as a key umbrella, or focal, species for many other plants and animals that live in this dry forest. By protecting chimpanzee habitat, we will protect functioning ecosystems and diversity of natural resources that bring value to people.
UPP members Piel and Stewart participated in a 2011 workshop in Dar es Salaam to develop a Tanzanian Conservation Action Plan for chimpanzees identified the following key threats throughout chimpanzee range in Tanzania:
- Conversion of chimpanzee habitat into food crops and nonfood crop agricultural land:
- Incompatible extraction of firewood and logging for timber:
- Incompatible development and expansion of settlements and infrastructure:
- Incompatible human-ignited fires:
- Incompatible charcoal production:
- Disease due to pathogens introduced by humans and human activities:
The UPP works in partnership with several conservation organizations – The Nature Conservancy, Frankfurt Zoological Society, Jane Goodall Institute – in mitigating these threats.
Thanks to the generosity of adidas, inc., and in collaboration with the Jane Goodall Institute, Tanzania and Roots & Shoots, the UPP has been able to sponsor conservation-related contests in local schools. The prizes: new adidas shoes. Here UPP member Alex Piel and the head of the JGI (Tanzania) Masito-Ugalla Ecosystem Program, Emil Kayega, pose with winners and their teacher. Note bagged tree seedlings, ready for planting.
The UPP has hosted game officers from Mpanda at the Issa camp to facilitate their patrols deep into the Ugalla area, which is otherwise logistically inaccessible to patrols.
Caspian Johnson frees a bushbuck from a snare
Snares range from bark cords for rodents to steel cables. Botanist Yahya Abeid (above, left) once narrowly escaped one set for buffalo (pictured with Alex Piel & snares; Yahya’s training at Olmotonyi Forestry Institute in Arusha was supported by UPP and Missouri Botanical Garden).
Hunters going (illegally) after large animals sometimes cut trees to make a rough fence. Without realizing it, animals are guided toward either the hunter, or more likely, snares. We remove these whenever encountered, and free any ensnared animals.
Charcoal production is a cause of unsustainable deforestation in Tanzania. It occurs in Ugalla, but seems to be restricted to peripheral areas near villages. The UPP has just begun providing more efficient ovens to Uvinzan families which consume less fuel and reduce smoke inhalation by their users.
Greater Mahale Ecosystem (GME) Survey
Alex and Fiona began this work in August 2011 and it will run through October 2012, designed to reveal the importance of target areas for chimpanzees, prioritize them across the GME, as well as describe the threats to these chimpanzee populations. Chimpanzee fecal samples are being collected at each site to examine questions concerning connectivity and gene flow across the GME. Additionally, the survey will describe the presence and abundance of other wildlife in these areas, including elephants (below, right). Logistics remain one of the greatest challenges to this work, with many areas inaccessible by vehicle. At left, porters carry equipment and supplies out of Ntakata forest (October 2011).
Here, Alex collects a DNA sample from a fresh elephant dung, Ntakata Forest
Although red colobus (below, left) were one of the most frequently encountered mammals in Ntakata, chimpanzees abound.
