Cape Three Points Forest Reserve

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Summary

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• Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) may be present in Cape Three Points Forest Reserve.
• No chimpanzees were recorded in the last survey.
• The chimpanzee population trend is decreasing.
• The site has a total size of 51 km².
• Key threats to chimpanzees are hunting, logging, and forest loss due to agricultural expansion.
• Conservation activities are not documented.

Site characteristics

Cape Three Points Forest Reserve (CTP) is a small forest fragment in southern Ghana, representing one of the few patches of Atlantic forest remaining along the coast (Gatti 2009). Despite its small size, the reserve holds a rich diversity of plants, which led to its designation as a GSBA (Gatti 2009). The site was also declared as an Important Bird Area in 2001, as the site supports an interesting avifauna, including the Yellow-casqued hornbill (BirdLife International 2022).

Table 1. Basic site information for Cape Three Points Forest Reserve

Species	Pan troglodytes verus
Area	51 km²
Coordinates	Lat: 4.846039 , Lon: -2.041636
Type of site	Protected area (Forest Reserve)
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest
Type of governance

Types of sites Governance types Habitat types

Ape status

A rapid survey was conducted at the site in 2009 in the context of the Wildlife Wood Project in Ghana, which aims to assist logging companies in improving wildlife management in concession areas (Gatti 2009). No signs of chimpanzees were recorded.

Table 2. Ape population estimates reported for Cape Three Points 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	2009		0			Cape Three Points Forest Reserve	Reconnaissance walk		Gatti 2009	survey effort: 16.55 km	GHA0001, GHA0007 GHA0012, GHA0024, GHA0027, GHA0028, GHA0029

Sampling methods Analytical frameworks

Threats

The reserve is surrounded by rural settlements and extensive rubber plantations of the GREL (Ghana Rubber Estates Limited Company) (Gatti 2009). Wildlife resources are under severe threat from the surrounding human population (BirdLife International 2022).

Table 3. Threats to apes reported for Cape Three Points Forest Reserve

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Description	Year of threat
1 Residential & commercial development	1.1 Residential areas	High (more than 70% of population affected)	The reserve is surrounded by rural settlements and is under significant pressure from the surrounding populations (Gatti 2009).	Ongoing (2009)
2 Agriculture & aquaculture	2.1 Annual & perennial non-timber crops	High (more than 70% of population affected)	Seven admitted farms within the reserve boundaries. In the absence of clear demarcation, the farms have slowly extended, causing forest loss (Gatti 2009).	Ongoing (2009)
3 Energy production & mining	3.2 Mining & quarrying	Present (unknown severity)	Evidence of past gold-mining activity, including prospecting pits and small abandoned mines (BirdLife International 2022).	Ongoing (2022)
5 Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	High (more than 70% of population affected)	High hunting pressure in the reserve (Gatti 2009).	Ongoing (2009)
5 Biological resource use	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	Present (unknown severity)	Illegal felling of trees for canoes and wood construction in local fishing villages (Gatti 2009).	Ongoing (2009)

Threats

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Cape Three Points Forest Reserve

Challenges	Specific challenges	Source	Year(s)
	Not reported

Challenges

Enablers

Table 6. Enablers reported for Cape Three Points 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

Documented behaviours

Table 7. Behaviours documented for Cape Three Points 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 Cape Three Points 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	28	27.7	28.1	29.1
Annual precipitation [mm]	1689	1624	1703	1653	1723
Max no. consecutive dry days (per year)	25.9	23.3	24.2	23.6	27.1
No. days with heavy precipitation (per year)	7	7.4	6.6	6.1	8.3

Table 9. Projected exposure of apes to extreme climate impact events in Cape Three Points 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	1	1.19	0.5	0.12	1	0.41	0.5	0.67
Drought	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Heatwave	16	100	15	100	19.5	100	17.5	100
River flood	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.5	0.06
Tropical cyclone	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.5	9.08
Wildfire	22	0.31	22	0.26	22	0.26	21.5	0.33

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  Precipitation anomaly in Cape Three Points Forest Reserve

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  Temperature anomaly in Cape Three Points Forest Reserve

References

BirdLife International. (2022). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Cape Three Points Forest Reserve. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on March 15, 2022.

Gatti, S. (2009). Mammal surveys and capacity building for the Wildlife Wood Project - Ghana. Unpublished report to the WWP-Ghana.

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: 2022-03-18