There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
Plateaux Bateke National Park (PBNP) is a truly special landscape in Gabon where we have an amazing opportunity to facilitate the first lion restoration ever in West and Central Africa. Our two main goals for protecting the park include maintaining and reinforcing law enforcement and rebuilding its lion population to restore the park’s ecological functions and create future tourism opportunities.
Panthera has been collaborating with ANPN, Gabon’s National Park Agency, since 2010 to monitor wildlife in the park. In 2015, though, after two decades of absence, a lone male lion was photo-captured in the park. We knew this lion represented a new hope for Gabon and, indeed, West and Central Africa, where the lion is quickly disappearing. We increased our level of wildlife monitoring in the park and began training and supporting anti-poaching patrols. The main threat to the park’s wildlife is poaching, mainly coming from the neighboring Republic of Congo. Luckily, wildlife has steadily recovered since park creation on the Gabon side of the landscape.
Current Panthera staff helped conduct first surveys in the landscape in 2001 and 2003 (before Panthera even existed). The camera trap data from those past surveys and today reveal a decrease of poacher capture rates of 99.5% and steep increases in photographic rates for larger wildlife between 2001-2003 and 2017-2018:
750% for forest elephant
820% for forest buffalo
73% for leopard
During our initial surveys of this landscape in 2001 and 2003, lions and leopards were completely extirpated from what is now the park. It is fantastic to see how wildlife has recovered thanks to the protection efforts of our friends at ANPN. The return of the system’s top predator in 2015 is the last missing piece of the puzzle to fully restore this unique ecosystem.“” - Philipp Henschel, West and Central Africa Regional Director
The park is also home to three other cat wild species: leopard, African golden cat and serval. It also harbors released orphaned gorillas and wild chimpanzees. Our camera trap monitoring established that the lone male lion first recorded in 2015 has since then taken up residency in the park. The government, in response, has decided to actively restore the park's lion population. Park authorities have invited Panthera to use this male as one of the founders of a new breeding population in the landscape.
If successful, this would be the first lion restoration ever in West and Central Africa. To rebuild the population, we will use wild and genetically compatible lions, starting with females. This “soft release” process means the individuals spend a short amount of time inside a pre-release enclosure within the national park. Eventually, they will be given free roam and monitored by GPS collars.
Eventually, as wildlife populations increase, we hope to develop ecotourism in the park in collaboration with local communities. The majority of park guards currently protecting the park are from local communities and wildlife recovery in the park will create even more local jobs, including as additional guards, tour guides and drivers.
While our joint efforts with ANPN have resulted in a major decrease in poaching events in the park, we are still seeing illegal hunting persist. Guards are facing more dangerous situations including poachers armed with large-caliber rifles or automatic weapons. The illegal bushmeat trade is considered an indirect threat to the park’s burgeoning lion population as it reduces the available prey for these big cats and can drive them (as well as other large carnivores) to search for food outside of the park. Traveling outside of protections and closer to communities increases the risk of conflict for these animals.
As we continue to plan for the eventual reintroduction of lions into the park, our support to ANPN’s patrolling and surveillance efforts remain strong. We’re seeing positive results from both in the forms of arrests, convictions and reductions in poaching and increases in the numbers and variety of species caught on camera-trap. Soon we will begin building the pre-release enclosure, and we hope to begin translocating two female lions from northern Namibia in early 2021, provided local authorities in southeast Gabon and community representatives are fully on board. Earlier consultations were positive and will be followed up by further meetings later this year.
Wow, what an incredible undertaking. I very much hope this project is successful, we could use some really good news lately. It appears this is being done the right way, and that tremendous thought and planning has gone into it. Cheers @Sully for bringing this to our attention!!
Lions from above! These two were spotted by our pilot while out on a surveillance flight. Despite human pressures on the Park over many years, Garamba’s lion population remains at a healthy level and they maintain their position at the top of the food chain here.
