The West African Primate Conservation Action (WAPCA) is an NGO based in Ghana working to safeguard the future of four highly threatened primate species and their habitat in the West-African Upper Guinean Rainforest.
The Upper Guinean rainforest, IUCN’s 25 Key Biodiversity Areas, is an area of high endemism with Western Ghana considered a secondary area of endemism with a distinct community of primates, most notably the Critically Endangered Roloway Monkey (Cercopithecus Roloway) one of the World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates (Schwitzer et al., 2016), the Critically Endangered White-naped Mangabey (Cercocebus lunulatus) and possibly Miss Waldron’s Red Colobus (Procolobus badius waldroni) which was declared extinct in 2000 (Mittermeier et al., 2009).
However, according to a recent CEPF Ecosystem Report, the Upper Guinean Forest has been reduced to a mere 15% of its original forest cover with Ghana losing 90% of its primary rainforest in less than 50 years.
Clearing for agriculture, charcoal production, excessive logging, mining and human population encroachment is accelerating deforestation and degradation leaving fragmented remnants of rainforest. Illegal logging, which makes up 80% of timber harvested, is highly devastating as it is wholly unregulated, monitored or managed resulting in no limitations on number of trees taken, size or species (Hance 2015).
Extensive bush meat hunting creates an additional stressor with estimates of the trade running as high as US$400 million annually in Ghana. Bushmeat is a major food source for Ghanaians with an estimated 80% of the rural population dependent on bushmeat as their main source of protein (Dempsey 2014)
The Kwabre Forest, a 12,500 ha community forest in Western Ghana, is one of the last habitats for all of WAPCA’s focal species, discovering the Roloway monkey in 2012 – thought to be extinct in Ghana. WAPCA has been working with the communities surrounding the Kwabre Forest since this discovery assisting in the creation and management of a CREMA (Community Resource Management Area) – a community led, democratically elected, natural resource management system.
Over the 5 years WAPCA has facilitated: training in natural resource and finance management, trained and established forest patrols and established tree nurseries for reforestation activities and sustainable community agro-forestry plantations. WAPCA, now in its 6th year, is continuing to work with the communities developing sustainable livelihoods and promoting green value chains, acknowledging the importance of recognising the communities needs as well as those of the wildlife, creating a holistic and sustainable approach to conservation.
Ecosystem: Forest , Resources: Wildlife , Big Issues: Biodiversity , Big Issues: Indigenous peoples , Solutions: Empowerment
