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

Pan troglodytes verus; Species distribution model; West Africa; Biodiversity; Conservation; Database systems; Forestry; Intellectual property; Laws and legislation; Population distribution; Surveys; Density distributions; Infrastructure project; Intellectual property rights; Research collaborations; Species distribution modeling; Population statistics; Hominidae; Pan; Primates

Abstract :

[en] 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 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chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) we compiled field surveys for this taxon from IUCN SSC A.P.E.S., 75% of which were unpublished.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. © 2019 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Disciplines :

Zoology

Author, co-author :

Heinicke, S.; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (IDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

Mundry, R.; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

Boesch, C.; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany, Wild Chimpanzee Foundation, West Africa Representation, Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire

Amarasekaran, B.; Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Freetown, Sierra Leone

Barrie, A.; Bumbuna Watershed Management Authority, Freetown, Sierra Leone

Brncic, T.; Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Freetown, Sierra Leone

Brugiere, D.; Projets Biodiversité et Ressources Naturelles BRL Ingénierie, Nimes Cedex, France

Campbell, G.; Biodiversity Consultancy Ltd, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Carvalho, J.; Faculty of Computing Science and Mathematics, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom

Danquah, E.; Department of Wildlife and Range Management, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

More authors (31 more)

Language :

English

Title :

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

Publication date :

2019

Journal title :

Environmental Research Letters

eISSN :

1748-9326

Publisher :

Institute of Physics Publishing, United Kingdom

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

064001

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Funders :

Robert Bosch Stiftung
MPG - Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften

Available on ORBi :

since 21 July 2021

Statistics

Number of views

57 (1 by ULiège)

Number of downloads

65 (1 by ULiège)

More statistics

Scopus citations^®

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

OpenCitations

OpenAlex citations

Bibliography

African Development Bank 2019 African Development Bank, ECOWAS, sign agreement for study on Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway Afr. Dev. Bank https://afdb.org/en/news-and-events/african-development-bank-ecowas-sign-agreement-for-study-on-abidjan-lagos-corridor-highway-18962/
Baayen R H 2008 Analyzing Linguistic Data: A Practical Introduction to Statistics Using R (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
BBOP 2013 To No Net Loss and Beyond: An Overview of the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme (BBOP) (Washington, DC: BBOP) https://www.forest-trends.org/publications/to-no-net-loss-and-beyond/
Bleich O, Gürlich S and Köhler F 2019 Verzeichnis und Verbreitungsatlas der Käfer Deutschlands http://coleokat.de
Boakes E H, McGowan P J K, Fuller R A, Chang-qing D, Clark N E, O'Connor K and Mace G M 2010 Distorted views of biodiversity: spatial and temporal bias in species occurrence data PLOS Biol. 8 e1000385
Boesch L, Mundry R, Kühl H S and Berger R 2017 Wild mammals as economic goods and implications for their conservation Ecol. Soc. 22 36
Brncic T, Amarasekaran B, McKenna A, Mundry R and Kühl H S 2015 Large mammal diversity and their conservation in the human-dominated land-use mosaic of Sierra Leone Biodivers. Conserv. 24 2417-38
Burnham K P and Anderson D R 2002 Model Selection and Multimodel Inference: A Practical Information-Theoretic Approach 2nd edn (New York: Springer)
Cade B S 2015 Model averaging and muddled multimodel inferences Ecology 96 2370-82
Campbell G, Kuehl H, N'Goran Kouamé P and Boesch C 2008 Alarming decline of West African chimpanzees in Côte d'Ivoire Curr. Biol. 18 R903-4
Collen B, Loh J, Whitmee S, McRae L, Amin R and Baillie J E M 2009 Monitoring change in vertebrate abundance: the living planet index Conserv. Biol. 23 317-27
Corlett R T 2011 Trouble with the gray literature Biotropica 43 3-5
Costello M J, Michener W K, Gahegan M, Zhang Z-Q and Bourne P E 2013 Biodiversity data should be published, cited, and peer reviewed Trends Ecol. Evol. 28 454-61
da Silva Borges F F 2017 A Country-Level Genetic Survey of the IUCN Critically Endangered Western Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) in Guinea-Bissau Master Thesis (Porto: University of Porto)
Edwards D P, Sloan S, Weng L, Dirks P, Sayer J and Laurance W F 2014 Mining and the African environment Conserv. Lett. 7 302-11
Esch T, Taubenböck H, Roth A, Heldens W, Felbier A, Thiel M, Schmidt M, Müller A and Dech S 2012 TanDEM-X mission - mdash;new perspectives for the inventory and monitoring of global settlement patterns J. Appl. Remote Sens. 6 061702-1
FAO 2005 Roads of the World (Vmap0) http://www.fao.org/geonetwork
Friedl M A, Sulla-Menashe D, Tan B, Schneider A, Ramankutty N, Sibley A and Huang X 2010 Global land cover MCD12Q1, Collection 5.1, IGBP Land Cover (Boston, MA: Boston University) http://landcover.org/data/lc/
Fruth B 2016 Pan paniscus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species http://iucnredlist.org
GBIF 2018 GBIF Home Page https://gbif.org/
Golden C and Comaroff J 2015 Effects of social change on wildlife consumption taboos in northeastern Madagascar Ecol. Soc. 20 41
GRASP and IUCN 2018 Report to the CITES Standing Committee on the Status of Great Apes
Guberman J M et al 2011 BioMart central portal: an open database network for the biological community Database 2011 bar041
Heinicke S et al 2019 Characteristics of positive deviants in western chimpanzee populations Front. Ecol. Evol.
Herbinger I, Boesch C and Rothe H 2001 Territory characteristics among three neighboring chimpanzee communities in the Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire Int. J. Primatol. 22 143-67
Hilbe J M 2011 Negative binomial regression (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Hockings K J et al 2015 Apes in the anthropocene: flexibility and survival Trends Ecol. Evol. 30 215-22
Humle T, Boesch C, Campbell G, Junker J, Koops K, Kühl H and Sop T 2016 Pan Troglodytes ssp. verus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016 http://iucnredlist.org
Humle T, Colin C, Laurans M and Raballand E 2011 Group release of sanctuary chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in the Haut Niger National Park, Guinea, West Africa: ranging patterns and lessons so far Int. J. Primatol. 32 456-73
IUCN 2014 Regional Action Plan for the Conservation of Western Lowland Gorillas and Central Chimpanzees 2015-2025 (Gland: IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group)
IUCN and ICCN 2012 Bonobo (Pan paniscus): Conservation Strategy 2012-2022 (Gland: IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group & Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature)
Jantz S M, Pintea L, Nackoney J and Hansen M C 2016 Landsat ETM plus and SRTM data provide near real-time monitoring of chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) habitats in Africa Remote Sens. 8 427
Jetz W, McPherson J M and Guralnick R P 2012 Integrating biodiversity distribution knowledge: toward a global map of life Trends Ecol. Evol. 27 151-9
Junker J et al 2012 Recent decline in suitable environmental conditions for African great apes Divers. Distrib. 18 1077-91
Kindsvater H K, Dulvy N K, Horswill C, Juan-Jorda M-J, Mangel M and Matthiopoulos J 2018 Overcoming the data crisis in biodiversity conservation Trends Ecol. Evol. 33 676-88
Knight A, Chapman H M and Hale M 2016 Habitat fragmentation and its implications for endangered chimpanzee Pan Troglodytes Conservation Oryx 50 533-6
Kormos R and Boesch C 2003 Regional Action Plan for the Conservation of Chimpanzees in West Africa. (Washington DC: IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group and Conservation International)
Kormos R, Boesch C, Bakarr M I and Butynski T 2003 West African Chimpanzees. Status survey and Conservation Action Plan (Gland and Cambridge: IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group)
Kühl H S et al 2017 The Critically Endangered western chimpanzee declines by 80% Am. J. Primatol. 79 e22681
Kühl H S, Williamson L, Sanz C, Morgan D and Boesch C 2007 A.P.E.S., IUCN SSC A.P.E.S. database http://apesportal.eva.mpg.de/
Laurance W F 2018 Towards more sustainable infrastructure: challenges and opportunities in ape range states of Africa and Asia State of the APES: Infrastructure Development and Ape Conservation, ed. Arcus Foundation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Laurance W F, Goosem M and Laurance S G W 2009 Impacts of roads and linear clearings on tropical forests Trends Ecol. Evol. 24 659-69
Laurance W F, Sloan S, Weng L and Sayer J A 2015 Estimating the environmental costs of Africa's massive 'development corridors' Curr. Biol. 25 3202-8
Luncz L V, Mundry R and Boesch C 2012 Evidence for cultural differences between neighboring chimpanzee communities Curr. Biol. 22 922-6
Maisels F, Bergl R A and Williamson E A 2018 Gorilla gorilla. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018 http://iucnredlist.org
Manly B F J 1997 Randomization, Bootstrap and Monte Carlo Methods in Biology 2nd edn (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press)
Matsuzawa T, Ohashi G, Humle T, Granier N, Kourouma M and Soumah A G 2011 Green corridor project: planting trees in the savanna between Bossou and Nimba The Chimpanzees of Bossou and Nimba Primatology Monographs ed T Matsuzawa, T Humle and Y Sugiyama (Tokyo: Springer)
Morgan D, Mundry R, Sanz C, Ayina C E, Strindberg S, Lonsdorf E and Kühl H S 2018 African apes coexisting with logging: comparing chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) and gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) resource needs and responses to forestry activities Biol. Conserv. 218 277-86
Mudunuri U, Che A, Yi M and Stephens R M 2009 bioDBnet: the biological database network Bioinformatics 25 555-6
Mulenga G 2013 Developing Economic Corridors in Africa: Rationale for the Participation of the African Development Bank (Tunis: African Development Bank)
Murai M, Ruffler H, Berlemont A, Campbell G, Esono F, Agbor A, Mbomio D, Ebana A, Nze A and Kühl H S 2013 Priority areas for large mammal conservation in equatorial Guinea PLOS One 8 e75024
Norris K, Asase A, Collen B, Gockowksi J, Mason J, Phalan B and Wade A 2010 Biodiversity in a forest-agriculture mosaic - mdash;the changing face of West African rainforests Biol. Conserv. 143 2341-50
Peterson A T and Soberón J 2018 Essential biodiversity variables are not global Biodivers. Conserv. 27 1277-88
PIDA 2018 Dakar-Bamako Standard Gauge Railway, Virtual PIDA Information Centre, Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa http://au-pida.org/view-project/939/
Pocock M J O, Roy H E, Preston C D and Roy D B 2015 The biological records centre: a pioneer of citizen science Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 115 475-93
Poulsen J R, Clark C J, Mavah G and Elkan P W 2009 Bushmeat supply and consumption in a tropical logging concession in northern Congo Conserv. Biol. 23 1597-608
Pruetz J D 2018 Nocturnal behavior by a diurnal ape, the West African chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus), in a savanna environment at Fongoli, Senegal Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 166 541-8
R Core Team 2018 R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing (Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing) https://R-project.org/
Reichman O J, Jones M B and Schildhauer M P 2011 Challenges and opportunities of open data in ecology Science 331 703-5
Sauer J, Link W, Fallon J, Pardieck K and Ziolkowski D 2013 The North American breeding bird survey 1966-2011 North Am. Fauna 79 1-32
Schwartz M W, Cook C N, Pressey R L, Pullin A S, Runge M C, Salafsky N, Sutherland W J and Williamson M A 2018 Decision support frameworks and tools for conservation Conserv. Lett. 11 e12385
Sloan S, Bertzky B and Laurance W F 2017 African development corridors intersect key protected areas Afr. J. Ecol. 55 731-7
Strindberg S et al 2018 Guns, germs, and trees determine density and distribution of gorillas and chimpanzees in Western Equatorial Africa Sci. Adv. 4 eaar2964
Thessen A E and Patterson D J 2011 Data issues in the life sciences ZooKeys 150 15-51
Thouless C R, Dublin H T, Blanc J J, Skinner D P, Daniel T E, Taylor R D, Maisels F, Frederick H L and Bouché P 2016 African elephant status report 2016. An Update from the African Elephant Database. Occasional Paper of the IUCN Species Survival Commission No. 60. IUCN/SSC African Elephant Specialist Group
Tweh C G, Lormie M M, Kouakou C Y, Hillers A, Kühl H S and Junker J 2015 Conservation status of chimpanzees Pan troglodytes verus and other large mammals in Liberia: a nationwide survey Oryx 49 710-8
UNEP-WCMC and IUCN 2017 Protected Planet: The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), Online Jan 2017 (Cambridge: UNEP-WCMC and IUCN) www.protectedplanet.net
Voigt M et al 2018 Global demand for natural resources eliminated more than 100 000 bornean orangutans Curr. Biol. 28 761-9
WCF 2012 Etat de la faune et des menaces dans les aires protegées terrestres et principales zones de forte biodiversité de Rep. de Guinée (Sangaredi, Republic of Guinea: Wild Chimpanzee Foundation Sangaredi, Republic of Guinea) http://www.wildchimps.org
Weng L, Boedhihartono A K, Dirks P H G M, Dixon J, Lubis M I and Sayer J A 2013 Mineral industries, growth corridors and agricultural development in Africa Glob. Food Secur. 2 195-202
Wessling E G, Deschner T, Mundry R, Pruetz J D, Wittig R M and Kühl H S 2018 Seasonal variation in physiology challenges the notion of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) as a forest-adapted species Front. Ecol. Evol. 6 60
Wich S A and Marshall A J 2016 An Introduction to Primate Conservation (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Wich S A et al 2016 Land-cover changes predict steep declines for the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) Sci. Adv. 2 e1500789