Journal
AFRICAN JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
Volume 49, Issue 1, Pages 70-80Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2028.2010.01229.x
Keywords
Congo Basin; conservation; elephants; gorillas; hunting
Categories
Funding
- National Geographic Society [7873-05]
- Purdue University
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This study examines the abundance of key mammal species at the Dzanga-Sangha Reserve (RDS) in the Central African Republic with respect to conservation zoning and human activities in the reserve. RDS has been funded as an integrated conservation and development project since the mid-1980s. This study illustrates distinct wildlife responses to logging and hunting in RDS sectors that vary in protection and enforcement levels and the erosion of some critical animal communities across the RDS in the face of challenges of increasing human populations and flows of arms and ammunitions there. Our results show elephants (Loxodonta africana cyclotis) to be appreciably absent close to human settlements, and increasingly vulnerable to hunting in the more integrally protected sectors far from town. We have found that duikers (Cephalophus sp.) and western lowland gorillas (Gorilla g. gorilla) make use of recently logged areas but are vulnerable to hunting there. These species are now most abundant farthest from human settlements. Our results have implications for the formulation of adaptive management plans that would benefit from the inclusion of nuanced understandings of site-specific and species-specific responses to microhabitats and the particular kinds of human extractive activities and challenges in the region.Resume Cette etude examine l'abondance d'especes cles de mammiferes dans la Reserve de Dzanga-Sangha (RDS), en Republique centrafricaine, en fonction du zonage de la conservation et des activites humaines dans la reserve. La RDS est financee comme un projet de conservation et de developpement integre (PCDI) depuis le milieu des annees 1980. Cette etude illustre diverses reponses de la faune sauvage aux coupes d'arbres et a la chasse dans des secteurs de la RDS ou le niveau de protection et de maintien de la loi varie, ainsi que l'erosion de certaines communautes animales critiques dans toute la RDS face aux defis que representent l'augmentation des populations humaines et l'afflux d'armes et de munitions. Nos resultats montrent que l'elephant (Loxodonta africana cyclotis) est significativement absent a proximite des installations humaines, et de plus en plus vulnerable a la chasse dans les secteurs mieux proteges loin des localites. Nous avons decouvert que les cephalophes (Cephalophus sp.) et les gorilles des plaines de l'Ouest (Gorilla g. gorilla) frequentent les zones fraichement exploitees mais qu'ils y sont vulnerables a la chasse. Ces especes sont desormais plus abondantes loin des installations humaines. Nos resultats ont des implications pour la conception de plans de gestion adaptative, qui auraient tout a gagner a inclure apprehension nuancee des reponses specifiques des especes et des sites aux conditions de microhabitats et aux types particuliers d'activites extractives humaines et de defis dans la region.
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