Primate seed dispersal and its potential role in maintaining useful tree species in the Tai region, Cote-d'Ivoire: implications for the conservation of forest fragments

As a result of forest modification, primates are increasingly having to rely on fragments; so too are the human populations that have historically relied on continuous forest for critical resources. The role of primates in seed dispersal is increasingly understood to have significant unique effects on plant demography and forest regeneration. Our aim in this paper is to explore the potential for monkey seed dispersers to maintain the utility of forest fragments for humans through seed dispersal in the Tai region, western Cote-d'Ivoire. We established a list of fruit species whose seeds are dispersed by seven of eight monkey species occurring in the Tai National Park by using primary data and published accounts of their fruit diet, and determined the abundance of human-used and monkey-dispersed tree species in forest fragments in the broader Tai region. The monkeys of the Tai National Park consumed 75 tree species. Of this total set of 75 species, 52 (69%) were dispersed almost exclusively by monkeys and were found in neighboring forest fragments. Of the 52 fruiting forest tree species that are dispersed by Tai monkeys, 25 (48%) have some utility to local inhabitants suggesting that maintaining populations of primates is important not only for forest regeneration, but also for human populations that rely on forest resources. The conservation of primate species is a critically important goal in itself, but by working to ensure their protection in forest fragments, we certainly protect indirectly the seed dispersal of important human resources in these fragments as well.