Draw River Forest Reserve

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Summary

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• Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) may be present in Draw River Forest Reserve.
• The chimpanzee population trend is unknown.
• The site has a total size of 235 km².
• Key threats to chimpanzees are hunting and habitat loss.
• Conservation activities have focused on forest restoration and habitat protection.

Site characteristics

Table 1. Basic site information for Draw River Forest Reserve

Species	Pan troglodytes verus
Area	235 km²
Coordinates	Lat: 5.201696 , Lon: -2.303156
Type of site	Protected area (Forest Reserve)
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical moist montane forest
Type of governance

Types of sites Governance types Habitat types

Ape status

It is unknown whether chimpanzees have been present in the reserve since 2012. A young chimpanzee was found in the Forest Reserve in 2012 and was sent to Kumasi zoo (Ofori-Amanfo pers. comm. 2023).

Table 2. Ape population estimates reported for Draw River Forest Reserve

Species	Year	Occurrence	Encounter or vistation rate (nests/km; ind/day)	Density estimate [ind./ km²] (95% CI)	Abundance estimate (95% CI)	Survey area	Sampling method	Analytical framework	Source	Comments	A.P.E.S. database ID
Pan troglodytes verus	2012	Present				Draw River Forest Reserve	Other		Ofori-Amanfo pers. comm. 2023	One individual was found by a local farmer.

Sampling methods Analytical frameworks

Threats

Table 3. Threats to apes reported for Draw River Forest Reserve

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Description	Year of threat
2 Agriculture & aquaculture	2.1 Annual & perennial non-timber crops	Medium (30-70% of population affected)	Tongya farming has changed the natural forest; farmers are allowed to farm at the degraded portions of the forest while economic trees are planted (Ofori-Amanfo pers. comm. 2023).	Ongoing (2023)
5 Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	High (more than 70% of population affected)	Subsistence and commercial poaching go on in the Forest Reserve for a long time (Ofori-Amanfo pers. comm. 2023).	Ongoing (2023)
5 Biological resource use	5.2 Gathering terrestrial plants	Medium (30-70% of population affected)	Plants are taken for medicinal, food, construction etc. purposes domestically or for commercial (Ofori-Amanfo pers. comm. 2023).	Ongoing (2023)
5 Biological resource use	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	High (more than 70% of population affected)	Legal logging (BirdLife International 2001).	1978-1990
5 Biological resource use	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	Medium (30-70% of population affected)	illegal logging sometimes goes on in the Forest (Ofori-Amanfo pers. comm. 2023).	Ongoing (2023)

Threats

Conservation activities

Table 4. Conservation activities reported for Draw River Forest Reserve

Category	Specific activity	Description	Implementing organization(s)	Year of activity
5 Protection & restoration	5.2 Legally protect ape habitat	The site is a forest reserve.		1937-Ongoing (2026)
5 Protection & restoration	5.5 Demarcate and enforce boundaries of protected areas	The Forest Boundary has clearly been demarcated and maintained periodically (Ofori-Amanfo pers. comm. 2023).		1937-Ongoing (2023)
5 Protection & restoration	5.6 Habitat restoration	Trees planting is ongoing in the Reserve (Ofori-Amanfo pers. comm. 2023).		Ongoing (2023)
5 Protection & restoration	5.6 Habitat restoration	Trees planted would not completely mimic the natural forest (Ofori-Amanfo pers. comm. 2023).		Ongoing (2023)

Conservation activities

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Draw River Forest Reserve

Challenges	Specific challenges	Source	Year(s)
	Not reported

Challenges

Enablers

Table 6. Enablers reported for Draw River Forest Reserve

Enablers	Specific enablers	Source	Year(s)
1 Site management
2 Resources and capacity
3 Engaged community
4 Institutional support
5 Ecological context
6 Safety and stability

Enablers

Research activities

The site was designated as an Important Bird Area in 2001 by BirdLife International, and it is therefore sometimes visited by researchers to assess bird species.

Documented behaviours

Table 7. Behaviours documented for Draw River Forest Reserve

Category	Behavior	Observation type	Prevalence	Observation dates	Source	Habituation	Species	Comment
	Not reported

Behaviours

Exposure to climate change impacts

As part of a study on the exposure of African great ape sites to climate change impacts, Kiribou et al. (2024) extracted climate data and data on projected extreme climate impact events for the site. Climatological characteristics were derived from observation-based climate data provided by the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP, www.isimip.org). Parameters were calculated as the average across each 30-year period. For 1981-2010, the EWEMBI dataset from ISIMIP2a was used. For the two future periods (2021-2050 and 2071-2099) ISIMIP2b climate data based on four CMIP5 global climate models were used. For future projections, two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) were used. RCP 2.6 is a scenario with strong mitigation measures in which global temperatures would likely rise below 2C. RCP 6.0 is a scenario with medium emissions in which global temperatures would likely rise up to 3C by 2100. For the number of days with heavy precipitation events, the 98th percentile of all precipitation days (>1mm/d) was calculated for the 1979-2013 reference period as a threshold for a heavy precipitation event. Then, for each year, the number of days above that threshold was derived. The figures on temperature and precipitation anomaly show the deviation from the mean temperature and mean precipitation for the 1979-2013 reference period.

The estimated exposure to future extreme climate impact events (crop failure, drought, river flood, wildfire, tropical cyclone, and heatwave) is based on a published dataset by Lange et al. 2020 derived from ISIMIP2b data. The same global climate models and RCPs as described above were used. Within each 30-year period, the number of years with an extreme event and the average proportion of the site affected were calculated (Kiribou et al. 2024).

Table 8. Estimated past and projected climatological characteristics in Draw River Forest Reserve

Value	1981-2010	2021-2050, RCP 2.6	2021-2050, RCP 6.0	2071-2099, RCP 2.6	2071-2099, RCP 6.0
Mean temperature [C]	27.2	28.2	27.9	28.3	29.3
Annual precipitation [mm]	1697	1633	1724	1677	1761
Max no. consecutive dry days (per year)	21	21.9	24.4	22.9	26
No. days with heavy precipitation (per year)	6.7	9.6	8.2	8.8	11.2

Table 9. Projected exposure of apes to extreme climate impact events in Draw River Forest Reserve

Type	No. of years with event (2021-2050, RCP 2.6)	% of site exposed (2021-2050, RCP 2.6)	No. of years with event (2021-2050, RCP 6.0)	% of site exposed (2021-2050, RCP 6.0)	No. of years with event (2070-2099, RCP 2.6)	% of site exposed (2070-2099, RCP 2.6)	No. of years with event (2070-2099, RCP 6.0)	% of site exposed (2070-2099, RCP 6.0)
Crop failure	2	5.3	2	3.54	0.5	2.65	3.5	5.3
Drought	0.25	25	0.5	50	0	0	0.5	25
Heatwave	15	100	15	100	19.5	100	19	100
River flood	0	0	0.5	0.05	0	0	1	1.54
Tropical cyclone	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.5	6.13
Wildfire	30	0.27	30	0.26	29	0.27	29	0.26

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  Precipitation anomaly in Draw River Forest Reserve

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  Temperature anomaly in Draw River Forest Reserve

References

BirdLife International (2001) Important Bird Area factsheet: Draw River Forest Reserve. Downloaded from http://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/draw-river-forest-reserve-iba-ghana on 10/11/2023.

Kiribou, R., Tehoda, P., Chukwu, O., Bempah, G., Kühl, H. S., Ferreira, J., …, & Heinicke, S. (2024). Exposure of African ape sites to climate change impacts. PLOS Climate, 3(2), e0000345. doi:10.1371/journal.pclm.0000345

Page created by: Richard Ofori-Amanfo & APES Atlas Team Date: 2023-11-10