Kimbi Fungom National Park

Central Africa > Cameroon > Kimbi Fungom National Park

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Summary

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• Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ellioti) are present in Kimbi Fungom National Park.
• The population size is unknown.
• The population trend is decreasing.
• The site has a total size of 953.8 km².
• Key threats to chimpanzees are hunting, logging and habitat fragmentation and degradation due to agriculture.
• Conservation activities are not documented.

Site characteristics

The Kimbi-Fungom National Park was created in 2015. It is located in northwestern Cameroon, bordering Nigeria to the North. With the establishment of the park, two reserves were merged; the Fungom Forest Reserve, established in 1936, and the Kimbi Game Reserve,established in 1964. The main rivers flowing through the site are the rivers Ivin, Menchum, and Kimbi (Chuo & Tsi 2017). Six primate species have been found to inhabit the site: Olive baboons (Papio anubis), patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas), vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus), white nosed monkey (Cercopithecus nictitans) and Mona monkeys (Cercopithecus mona) and the Nigeria- Cameroon chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes ellioti) (Atembeh 2020). The park is also home to giant ground pangolins (Smutsia gigantea), white-bellied tree pangolins (Phataginus tricuspis) and black-bellied tree pangolins (Phataginus tetradactyla) (Angwafo et al. 2019).

Table 1. Basic site information for Kimbi Fungom National Park

Species	Pan troglodytes ellioti
Area	953.8 km²
Coordinates	Lat: 6.782047 , Lon: 10.111895
Type of site	Protected area (National Park)
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest, Subtropical/tropical moist montane forest, Savanna, Grassland, Subtropical/tropical swamp forest
Type of governance

Types of sites Governance types Habitat types

Ape status

Table 2. Ape population estimates reported for Kimbi Fungom National Park

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 ellioti	2017		0.06			Kimbi Fungom National Park	Line transects		Zeh, Fuashi & Maurice 2019	Survey effort 274 km
Pan troglodytes ellioti	2015- 2016		1.09			Kimbi Fungom National Park	Reconnaissance walk		Chuo et al. 2017b	Survey effort 44 km. No direct observation of chimpanzees, only indirect

Sampling methods Analytical frameworks

Threats

Hunting is the main threat to chimpanzees and other wildlife in the park. A survey of 22 villages in close proximity to the park (288 interviews in total) revealed that most of the respondents, 94%, 72% and 98%, reported that chimpanzee’s body parts/meats are used for medicinal value, rituals and as food in special occasion respectively (Chuo & Tsi 2017). Furthermore, the impacts of agriculture also represent a threat to wildlife; farmland and fallow land increased from 9467.87ha (9.75%) in 1987 to 15096ha (15.8%) in 2017 (Zeh, Fuashi & Maurice 2019).

Table 3. Threats to apes reported for Kimbi Fungom National Park

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Description	Year of threat
2 Agriculture & aquaculture	2.1 Annual & perennial non-timber crops	High (more than 70% of population affected)	Habitat fragmentation and degradation due to expansion of land for agriculture (Zeh, Fuashi & Maurice 2019).	Ongoing (2019)
5 Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	High (more than 70% of population affected)	Chimpanzees are hunted for bushmeat consumption, rituals and medicinal purposes, and for the illegal pet trade (Chuo & Tsi 2017).	Ongoing (2017)
5 Biological resource use	5.2 Gathering terrestrial plants	High (more than 70% of population affected)	Exploitation of forest and non-timber products (Chuo et al. 2017b).	Ongoing (2017)
5 Biological resource use	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	High (more than 70% of population affected)	Timber harvesting (Chuo et al. 2017b).	Ongoing (2017)

Threats

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Kimbi Fungom National Park

Challenges	Specific challenges	Source	Year(s)
	Not reported

Challenges

Enablers

Table 6. Enablers reported for Kimbi Fungom National Park

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

Documented behaviours

Table 7. Behaviours documented for Kimbi Fungom National Park

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 Kimbi Fungom National Park

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]	24.5	25.7	25.4	25.8	26.9
Annual precipitation [mm]	2027	2115	2153	2114	2120
Max no. consecutive dry days (per year)	53.2	52.7	55.9	54.7	55.1
No. days with heavy precipitation (per year)	4.9	4.2	4.3	4.5	5.4

Table 9. Projected exposure of apes to extreme climate impact events in Kimbi Fungom National Park

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	5	0.63	4	0.68	3	0.91	13.5	0.61
Drought	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Heatwave	0.5	50	1	50	0	0	1.5	100
River flood	0.5	0.27	2.5	1.43	0.5	1.01	3.5	1.19
Tropical cyclone	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Wildfire	30	0.9	30	0.86	29	0.81	29	0.8

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  Precipitation anomaly in Kimbi Fungom National Park

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  Temperature anomaly in Kimbi Fungom National Park

References

Angwafo, T. E., Kaimo, N. K., Chuo, M. D., & Berinyuy, W. H. (2019). Abundance and distribution of pangolins (Manis spp.) in the kimbi-fungom national park, North West Region, Cameroon. J Entomol Zool Stud, 7(6), 71-78. link

Atembeh, L. (2020). Primates of the Kimbi-Fungom National Park Threatened! Retrieved February 24, 2023 from Green Vision. https://www.greenvision.news/primates-of-the-kimbi-fungom-national-park-threatened/ link

Chuo, M. D., & Tsi, E. A. (2017a). Chimpanzee in ethno-primatological practices and it implications for biodiversity conservation: Kimbi-fungom national park and kom-wum forest reserve, Cameroon. American Journal of Agriculture and Forestry, 5(5), 157-172. doi: 10.11648/j.ajaf.20170505.14

Chuo, M. D., Angwafo, T. E., Chefor, F., & Fru, B. S. (2017b). Estimation of chimpanzee’s (Pan troglodytes ellioti) abundance in the Kimbi-Fungum National Park and Kom-Wum Forest Reserve, Nw, Cameroon. Journal of Biodiversity Management and Forestry, 6(3), 20-30. DOI: 10.4172/2327-4417.1000185

Zeh, A. F., Fuashi, N. A., & Maurice, M. E. (2019). Impact of Land Use Changes on Wildlife Population in The Kimbi-Fungom National Park, North West Region, Cameroon. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications (IJSRP), 9(1), p8562. doi:10.29322/ijsrp.9.01.2019.p8562

Maurice, M. E., Lionel Ebong, E., Fuashi, N. A., Godwill, I. I., & Zeh, A. F. (2019). The ecological impact on the distribution of pangolins in Deng-Deng National Park, Eastern Region, Cameroon. Global Journal of Ecology, 4(1), 008–014. doi:10.22259/2637-5338.0301004

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: APES Atlas Team Date: 2023-02-24