Port Gauthier Classified Forest

West Africa > Côte d'Ivoire > Port Gauthier Classified Forest

Français | Português | Español | Bahasa Indonesia | Melayu

Summary

Loading map...

• West African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) have been extirpated from Port Gauthier Classified Forest.
• This site has a total surface area of 39.66 km².
• The site faces threats from the conversion of forest into plantations.
• Conservation activities include awareness-raising and tree-planting.

Site characteristics

The Port Gauthier Classified Forest is Category 3 (highest category of forest degradation by OIPR). It is under the authority of SODEFOR. This forest is located in the southwestern coastal area of Fresco department. The presence of elephants has been reported in some forest relics (Soiret pers. comm. 2025).

Table 1. Basic site information for Port Gauthier Classified Forest

Species	Pan troglodytes verus
Area	39.66 km²
Coordinates	Lat: 5.128051 , Lon: -5.456440
Type of site	Protected area (Classified Forest)
Habitat types	Subtropical/​tropical moist lowland forest, Agricultural land
Type of governance	Governance by government

Types of sites Governance types Habitat types

Ape status

Table 2. Ape population estimates reported for Port Gauthier Classified Forest

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	2007	Absent				Port Gauthier Classified Forest	Reconnaissance walk		Campbell 2008
Pan troglodytes verus	1989-1990	Present				Port Gauthier Classified Forest	Unknown		Marchesi et al. 1995 as cited by Kormos et al. 2003	Tracks were found.

Sampling methods Analytical frameworks

Threats

Table 3. Threats to apes reported for Port Gauthier Classified Forest

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)	Presence of several plantations, including, cocoa, coffee, and rubber (Soiret pers. comm. 2025).	Ongoing (2025)
2 Agriculture & aquaculture	2.3 Livestock farming & ranching	Present (unknown severity)	Signs of grazing found in the site (Gonedele et al. 2020).	Ongoing (2020)
5 Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	Present (unknown severity)	Poaching present in the forest. Poaching may have declined between 2012 and 2016 due to patrols taking place, but also the Ebola outbreak (Gonedele et al. 2020).	Ongoing (2020)
5 Biological resource use	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	Present (unknown severity)	Logging present in the forest (Gonedele et al. 2020).	Ongoing (2020)

Threats

Conservation activities

Table 4. Conservation activities reported for Port Gauthier Classified Forest

Category	Specific activity	Description	Implementing organization(s)	Year of activity
2 Counter-wildlife crime	2.3 Conduct regular anti-poaching patrols	Anti-poaching patrols conducted (Gonedele et al. 2020).	SODEFOR	2012-2016
4 Education & awareness	4.1 Educate local communities about apes and sustainable use	Awareness raising activities initiated by private individuals (Soiret pers. comm. 2025).		Ongoing (2025)
5 Protection & restoration	5.2 Legally protect ape habitat			Ongoing (2025)
5 Protection & restoration	5.6 Habitat restoration	Tree planting initiated by private individuals (Soiret pers. comm. 2025).		Ongoing (2025)

Conservation activities

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Port Gauthier Classified Forest

Challenges	Specific challenges	Source	Year(s)
	Not reported

Challenges

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. subm. 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 (see Kiribou et al. subm. for details).

Table 8. Estimated past and projected climatological characteristics in Port Gauthier Classified Forest

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]	26.6	27.6	27.5	27.7	28.7
Annual precipitation [mm]	1429	1365	1452	1390	1427
Max no. consecutive dry days (per year)	28.8	28.7	28.8	29.1	32.5
No. days with heavy precipitation (per year)	6.9	7.3	7.1	5.9	8.2

Table 9. Projected exposure of apes to extreme climate impact events in Port Gauthier Classified Forest

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	4.5	2.19	1.5	1.64	1	0.98	3	2.59
Drought	1.5	52.08	0.75	55.36	1.25	50	0.75	25
Heatwave	17.5	88.24	18.5	97.22	21.5	98	18.5	93.83
River flood	0	0	1	0.02	1.5	0.14	1.5	0.13
Tropical cyclone	0	0	0.5	1.19	0	0	0	0
Wildfire	30	0.31	30	0.32	29	0.32	29	0.32

• 

  Precipitation anomaly in Port Gauthier Classified Forest

• 

  Temperature anomaly in Port Gauthier Classified Forest

References

Campbell, G. (2008). Rapport préliminaire sur les parcs nationaux et les forêts classées inventoriés en Côte d’Ivoire. Rapport présenté à la direction de l’OIPR et de la SODEFOR. Unpublished report.
Gonedelé, S., Bitty, E. A., Yao, A. K., & McGraw, W. S. (2020). Foot patrols enhance conservation efforts in threatened forest reserves of coastal Côte d’Ivoire. Tropical Conservation Science, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/1940082919872637
Marchesi, P., Marchesi, N., Fruth, B., & Boesch, C. (1995). Census and Distribution of Chimpanzees in Côte d’Ivoire, Primates, 36, 591-607.
Kormos, R., Boesch, C., Bakarr, M.I. and Butynski, T. (eds.). (2003). West African Chimpanzees. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. ix + 219 pp.

Page created by: Serge Soiret Date: 2025-05-27