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Quelles aires protégées pour l’Afrique de l’Ouest ?

 | 
Anne Fournier
, 
Brice Sinsin
, 
Guy Apollinaire Mensah

Questions autour des aires protégées

Protected Areas of West Africa: What is the Future for Animal Biodiversity?

Françoise Claro et Wendengoudi Guenda

Texte intégral

1As a result of the development of human activities, protected areas very often represent the only spaces where biodiversity can be maintained. In West African states, they are limited in area, usually corresponding to less than 3 % of the total national land surface (such as in Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Ghana), sometimes from 3 % to 10 % of total land surface (such as in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana) and very rarely more than 10 % of total national land surface (such as in Togo and Senegal).

2Conserving biodiversity in such small areas constitutes a real challenge that is even more difficult to deal with as different additional factors aggravate the situation: galloping demography, low rainfall, and few human and material means.

3What is the situation today with regards to biodiversity in West Africa: has the diversity of species and habitats been maintained? Are protected areas simple refuges or do they maintain real ecological communities? Can they play their role of preserving the natural heritage in the presence of human activities?

4The Parakou seminar has provided us with the occasion to contribute responses to some of these questions. Presented here will be the results of the work of research teams that have concentrated for several years on wildlife with a view to their appropriate management and integrated conservation.

Have the specific and habitat diversities been preserved?

5Owing to the scarce resources available, very little data up to now have been gathered on wildlife and their habitats in the protected areas of West Africa. These precious data, essential to establishing baseline studies on the situation, most often show up in unpublished reports which are particularly useful to make accessible. In this regard, the assessment of wildlife research in controlled areas such as that presented here by Houenou Agassounon et al. (these proceedings) in Benin is of great interest.

6The following approach consists of carrying out inventories of wildlife which then form the basis for management and research. These species inventories are interesting for several reasons. They make it possible firstly to evaluate what proportion of the specific national or regional heritage is sheltered in protected areas and secondly to assess their implications. Nomao and Gautun (these proceedings) thus show that park W of Niger shelters almost all of the specific diversity of forms of rodents for the whole of West Africa, rodents which make up an essential link in the trophic networks and condition notably the presence of the diversity and abundance of small carnivores. The importance of the taxonomic expertise of zoologists is evident here and sometimes even requires the use of specialized tools, when it is not possible to determine the species of animal through the macroscopic observation of phenotypical characteristics. Thus, Daouda (these proceedings) uses cytology to confirm or revise the taxonomic position of certain species of rodents in the framework of his inventory.

7The second interesting aspect of species inventories is that they can indicate for us the existence of appropriate habitats within the protected area under consideration. This approach is more sensitive and again requires here the expertise of zoologists capable of interpreting data in the light of their knowledge of the biology of animal species under study. If the diversity of rodents observed by Nomao and Gautun (these proceedings) in park W in Niger can be explained by the presence of adapted vegetation, the inverse is also true: the specific richness of a protected area can also reflect a lack of habitat available and growing human pressure. Thus, in the national park of the Saloum delta in Senegal, the mangrove swamps harbor a high specific diversity of mammals who have found there a final refuge after they were faced with the destruction of favorable habitats outside the park (photo 1). However, these species are threatened with extinction in a more or less brief period. (Galat-Luong and Galat, these proceedings).

Photograph 1: Warthogs retreating into the Saloum mangroves at high tide (photo Galat-Luong/IRD, 1996)

8Other zoological groups, such as the avifauna, represent good indicators of climate change and the degradation of the natural environment. Finally, wildlife inventories make it possible to draw attention to the sanctuaries which require protection. Such, for example, is the case of the region of the Termit mountains in Niger where a specific, exceptional, diversity of Sahelo-Saharan animals can still be observed (Claro et al. these proceedings).

Can human activities and the conservation of animals be reconciled?

9The degree of protection offered by protected areas is different according to the type of protected area. In West Africa, the reserved forests are the focus notably of lumber operations which seem to leave very little room for wildlife. This has given rise to a special research effort the results of which will be presented here. The work of Kassa et al. (these proceedings), Assogbadjo and Sinsin (these proceedings), Galat and Galat-Luong, Galat et al. illustrate the extent to which the exploitation of these forests represent a cruel threat for primates. The conservation of unexploited forests and/or the restoration of forested areas at the same time as areas for human use appear to be the only viable means of conservation for these species and Paraïso and Thomas-Odjo show us here how their entomological research can contribute to the restoration of these forests as much as sylviculture.

10Other types of protected areas exploited by humans, such as the wildlife reserves, can without any doubt fulfill their function of wildlife conservation, if the management measures are appropriate. These measures must be based on a thorough knowledge of wildlife populations, of their numbers and their structure, all of which requires the application of appropriate methods of investigation (see below).

11In these conditions, wild game represents a precious resource for local peoples, who will ensure their long-term viability by well-managed hunting activities. In the case of protected areas where hunting is forbidden, raising wildlife can bring to the peoples living on the peripheries of protected areas a regular source of wild meat that can compensate for the changes in use imposed by setting up this kind of protected area. The zootechnical success of these projects depends on the knowledge of the biology of species that could be raised. Protected areas thus constitute appropriate laboratories for the study of the eco-ethology of species and for deducing their vital needs in terms of food and habitat (Grimms’ duiker, Adjibi et al.; warthog, Codjia et al.; bushpig, Ekué et al.).

12The distribution of wildlife and their utilization of habitat according to the seasons within a protected area are also important data on which to base the management measures for wildlife populations within a protected area (primates, Galat et al.). A thorough knowledge of the important characteristics of the protected area itself is essential. Each protected area is a special case and its use by any one species is different according to the characteristics of the soil which have an effect on the distribution of water and food resources (bushpig, Ekué et al.).

13The issue of the co-existence of wildlife and humans cannot be approached unilaterally. If human activities are often carried out to the detriment of the survival of wildlife, this same wildlife can in its turn represent a threat for man, whether it be the large predators such as the hyenas or lions, which in certain circumstances can attack domestic animals, or the large herbivores such as the elephants, which are attracted by the vegetal resources of the farmers’ fields. This issue of conflicts between humans and wildlife within protected areas and the peripheral zones is a particularly sensitive issue which justifies a specific research effort. This effort must be multidisciplinary and must integrate both the human dimension and the biology of wildlife species involved in these conflicts. The study carried out by Alfa Gambari et al. on the elephants of the wildlife area of the Djona in Benin illustrates here how a better understanding of wildlife movements, of the vital areas of species and their diet according to the seasons assists the understanding of processes which will determine the implementation of measures of integrated conservation for the mutual benefit of wildlife and human populations.

Research: is there a future for biodiversity?

14The creation of most of the protected areas of West Africa dates back to only 40-70 years, which is a very short timeframe with regards to the lifespan of certain species of wildlife. For those species with a lifespan of 10 to 20 years for example, only a few generations have gone by since measures to protect them were taken.

15Counting provides useful data for the assessment of population trends and their density within a protected space and it is essential to test the methodologies to adopt (Kassa and Sinsin) and to harmonize them to allow for comparative studies (Téhou). Population levels constitute one of the indicators for the risk of species extinction, along with the surface of vital space available and the extent of their area of distribution (UICN, 2000).

16The work in counting and measuring vital space made it possible for Assogbado and Sinsin to confirm the precarious status of three species of monkey in the Lokoli forest in Benin (Cercopithecus e. erythrogaster, C. aethiops tantalus, C. mona). In the Lama forest, five species of primates co-exist at population levels from 50 to 2500 individuals (Nobimè and Sinsin). The study of the composition of groups makes it possible to describe the associations of this species as well as their respective behaviour, which could correspond to an important relationship of plurispecific cooperation to be taken into consideration for their conservation. This illustrates well how important it is to consider not only the species but also the communities and populations. Such research requires large resources: North-South cooperation is thus particularly precious (Biolama project, Attignon et al.)

17Predicting the future of wildlife species depends in particular on their potential to adapt to new habitats. Knowledge of the biology of species develops as we study their ecoethological reactions to new constraints imposed on them. What is the threshold for modifications of habitat that can support these species, what are the priorities for the conservation or restoration of habitats? The redbellied monkey (C. e. erythrogaster), a sub-species that is native to Benin, is particularly threatened and survives in low numbers in habitats of dense semi-deciduous forests and old fallows. The study by Kassa et al. makes it possible to describe the characteristics of habitats used by this sub-species and to classify them by order of their preference. This detailed knowledge makes it possible notably to orient the choice of managers towards the types of trees to replant for programs of habitat restoration.

18Protected areas are by definition limited in area; can they preserve those species whose survival necessitates large-scale migrations? A multitude of birds and mammals need to migrate beyond protected areas and across borders. The example of the work of Baillon and Chevallier illustrates the complexity of factors that determine the presence of the black stork: the position of sleeping places is infinitely variable and does not correspond to traditional sites as we know them but to ecological choices. We see here how much the conservation of a species depends on trans-border cooperation and how important it is to work not only on a local scale but also on a regional scale, indeed even on an international scale.

Conclusion

19The work presented hereafter is rich in results and is proof of the growing investment in favour of wildlife conservation in West Africa. The success of conservation management programs for animal biodiversity depends largely on their integration with human activities (see also Lamarque, this volume). Increasingly, research is actively integrating human populations whose knowledge is precious; recourse to human sciences in addition to biological sciences (see for example Oussou et al.) should continue to develop. Another area of research, little represented in this seminar, is that of pathology which nevertheless represents a sizeable risk not just for human survival but also for that of wildlife (Ekhassa, Rey-Herme).

20This seminar can be seen as a precursor of what should be tomorrow’s scientific research, to support conservation efforts for wildlife biodiversity by the managers: multidisciplinary and integrated - associating local peoples, managers and researchers. Thanks to seminars such as this one in Parakou, this research should be progressively coordinated and harmonized spatially and temporally, to work at the most relevant scales with regards to the biology of species. The integration of such research networks of wildlife observatories in West Africa could be one of the keys to the continued maintenance of biodiversity.

Bibliographie

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Table des illustrations

Légende Photograph 1: Warthogs retreating into the Saloum mangroves at high tide (photo Galat-Luong/IRD, 1996)
URL http://books.openedition.org/irdeditions/docannexe/image/8019/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 297k

Auteurs

Françoise Claro, zoologiste
MNHN, département d'Écologie et de Gestion de la biodiversité
CP 31, Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes, 57 rue Cuvier,
75231 Paris cedex 05, France
associée IRD, UR 136 «Aires protégées en Afrique de l’Ouest»

Wendengoudi Guenda, écologue, hydrologue
faculté des Sciences, université de Ouagadougou
03 BP 7021, Ouagadougou 03, Burkina Faso

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