Summary

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Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ellioti) & Cross river gorillas (Gorilla gorilla diehli) are present in Ejagham Forest Reserve.
The population sizes are unknown.
The great ape population trend is unknown.
The site has a total size of 748.5 km².
Key threats include poaching.
Conservation activities are not documented.

Site characteristics

Officially known as the Ejagham Council Forest Reserve, the site is contiguous with the northern boundary of Korup National Park and also shares a border with the Oban division of the Cross River National Park in Nigeria. The reserve is part of the proposed CRIKOT World Heritage Site, which encompasses protected areas in Nigeria and Cameroon, including Korup National Park, Cross River National Park, Takamanda National Park, Mbe Mountains and Mone River Forest Reserve. The region holds the richest butterfly diversity in Africa with over 1,000 lowland forest species. The area is also a stronghold for regionally endemic primates and contains an extremely high diversity of plants, reptiles, and amphibians (UNESCO).

Table 1. Basic site information for Ejagham Forest Reserve

Species	Pan troglodytes ellioti, Gorilla gorilla diehli
Area	748.5 km²
Coordinates	Lat: 5.639550 , Lon: 8.961072
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

Table 2. Ape population estimates reported for Ejagham 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 ellioti	2002-2004		0.14			Ejagham Forest Reserve	Reconnaissance walk		Forboseh, Sunderland & Eno-Nku 2007
Gorilla gorilla diehli	2002-2004		0			Ejagham Forest Reserve	Reconnaissance walk		Forboseh, Sunderland & Eno-Nku 2007

Sampling methods Analytical frameworks

Threats

Table 3. Threats to apes reported for Ejagham Forest Reserve

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Description	Year of threat
5 Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	Present (unknown severity)	Poaching for bushmeat trade (Forboseh, Sunderland & Eno-Nku 2007).	Ongoing (2007)

Threats

Conservation activities

The site is part of the proposed Cross River-Korup Takamanda (CRIKOT) National Parks World Heritage Site, which is in the tentative list since 2020 (UNESCO).

Table 4. Conservation activities reported for Ejagham Forest Reserve

Category	Specific activity	Description	Implementing organization(s)	Year of activity
5 Protection & restoration	5.2 Legally protect ape habitat			1934-Ongoing (2026)

Conservation activities

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Ejagham Forest Reserve

Challenges	Specific challenges	Source	Year(s)
	Not reported

Challenges

Enablers

Table 6. Enablers reported for Ejagham 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

Documented behaviours

Table 7. Behaviours documented for Ejagham 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. 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 Ejagham 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]	25.9	27	26.9	27	28.2
Annual precipitation [mm]	2425	2500	2557	2551	2525
Max no. consecutive dry days (per year)	35.4	31.5	34	27.9	32.8
No. days with heavy precipitation (per year)	5.3	4.9	5	5.4	5.9

Table 9. Projected exposure of apes to extreme climate impact events in Ejagham 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	7	0.3	6	0.23	3.5	0.4	7.5	0.35
Drought	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Heatwave	7.5	100	8.5	100	6.5	100	9.5	100
River flood	1.5	0.73	1	3.76	2.75	2.84	3	2.68
Tropical cyclone	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Wildfire	30	0.67	30	0.69	29	0.67	29	0.71

Precipitation anomaly in Ejagham Forest Reserve
Temperature anomaly in Ejagham Forest Reserve

External links

UNESCO

References

Forboseh, P. F., Sunderland, T. C. H., & Eno-Nku, M. (2007). Priority setting for conservation in south-west Cameroon based on large mammal surveys. Oryx, 41(2), 255-262.

Page created by: APES Atlas Team Date: 2023-06-01