Protected areas in tropical Africa: assessing threats and conservation activities

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 9; no. 12; p. e114154
• Main Authors: Tranquilli, Sandra, Abedi-Lartey, Michael, Abernethy, Katharine, Amsini, Fidèle, Asamoah, Augustus, Balangtaa, Cletus, Blake, Stephen, Bouanga, Estelle, Breuer, Thomas, Brncic, Terry M, Campbell, Geneviève, Chancellor, Rebecca, Chapman, Colin A, Davenport, Tim R B, Dunn, Andrew, Dupain, Jef, Ekobo, Atanga, Eno-Nku, Manasseh, Etoga, Gilles, Furuichi, Takeshi, Gatti, Sylvain, Ghiurghi, Andrea, Hashimoto, Chie, Hart, John A, Head, Josephine, Hega, Martin, Herbinger, Ilka, Hicks, Thurston C, Holbech, Lars H, Huijbregts, Bas, Kühl, Hjalmar S, Imong, Inaoyom, Yeno, Stephane Le-Duc, Linder, Joshua, Marshall, Phil, Lero, Peter Minasoma, Morgan, David, Mubalama, Leonard, N'Goran, Paul K, Nicholas, Aaron, Nixon, Stuart, Normand, Emmanuelle, Nziguyimpa, Leonidas, Nzooh-Dongmo, Zacharie, Ofori-Amanfo, Richard, Ogunjemite, Babafemi G, Petre, Charles-Albert, Rainey, Hugo J, Regnaut, Sebastien, Robinson, Orume, Rundus, Aaron, Sanz, Crickette M, Okon, David Tiku, Todd, Angelique, Warren, Ymke, Sommer, Volker
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 03-12-2014; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Africa; Agricultural management; Agriculture; Animals; Animals, Wild; Anthropogenic factors; Biology and Life Sciences; Conservation; Conservation of Natural Resources; Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Ecosystem; Endangered Species; Fires; Human influences; Hunting; Life sciences; Logging; Natural resources; Protected areas; Research and Analysis Methods; Sciences du vivant; Threat evaluation; Tourism; Tropical Climate; Tropical forests; Wildlife; Wildlife conservation; Wildlife management; Workers; Zoologie; Zoology; Africa; New York; Cameroon; United Kingdom > UK; United States > US; Japan; Tanzania; Ghana; Pennsylvania; Canada; Gabon; Belgium; Missouri; Central African Republic; Nigeria; Central Africa; Germany
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114154

Numerous protected areas (PAs) have been created in Africa to safeguard wildlife and other natural resources. However, significant threats from anthropogenic activities and decline of wildlife populations persist, while conservation efforts in most PAs are still minimal. We assessed the impact level of the most common threats to wildlife within PAs in tropical Africa and the relationship of conservation activities with threat impact level. We collated data on 98 PAs with tropical forest cover from 15 countries across West, Central and East Africa. For this, we assembled information about local threats as well as conservation activities from published and unpublished literature, and questionnaires sent to long-term field workers. We constructed general linear models to test the significance of specific conservation activities in relation to the threat impact level. Subsistence and commercial hunting were identified as the most common direct threats to wildlife and found to be most prevalent in West and Central Africa. Agriculture and logging represented the most common indirect threats, and were most prevalent in West Africa. We found that the long-term presence of conservation activities (such as law enforcement, research and tourism) was associated with lower threat impact levels. Our results highlight deficiencies in the management effectiveness of several PAs across tropical Africa, and conclude that PA management should invest more into conservation activities with long-term duration.