by Morie Alpha, Torjia Karimu
For years, the chimpanzee population has been known to decline. Pet trade is still a major problem today. However, a new programme has been launched by some NGOs and the Government of Sierra Leone to reduce the danger of local extinction of this species, atleast temporarily.
Chimpanzee numbers have steadily declined since the mid-eighties. In the early seventies, an estimated 20,000 wild chimps were present in Sierra Leone. Within a short time, this number declined dramatically, largely due to the bush meat trade, pet trade, and trade for biomedical research.
Pet trade resulted in hundreds of orphaned chimps – a shocking 5 to 10 chimps die for every one in captivity. As a consequence, the Government of Sierra Leone was alerted to the plight of chimps, and later, a ban was imposed on the export of all wildlife species. Today, the International Trade in Chimps from Sierra Leone has been stopped to a large extent, with Sierra Leone acceding to the Convention on International Trade in Wildlife Species in 1994. Unfortunately, the national pet trade has proven a hard nut to crack.
Realizing the need for an intervention in the conservation for chimps, the Sierra Leone Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Program was launched in 1995. It was the collaborative efforts of the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone, a local NGO, the Wildlife Conservation Branch of the Forestry Division of the Government of Sierra Leone, and SAB Technology, a private business enterprise operating in Sierra Leone.
As the campaign to save and preserve chimps heightens, another protection entity was introduced, the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, established to serve as home for rescued orphan chimps. It is located on a hundred acre forested land within the Western Area Peninsula Forest Reserve. The goals of the Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Program are:
* To encourage the implementation of existing international wildlife laws, especially those provisions contained in the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES);
* To encourage local law enforcement agencies to take action against the trading of chimpanzees;
* To integrate orphaned chimpanzees into social groups, with a view to gradually rehabilitate them into a semi-wild environment;
* To increase public awareness of the plight of Sierra Leoneâ€TMs chimpanzee population by promoting environmental education, and improving facilities within the sanctuaries that will attract visitors; and
* To reintroduce rehabilitated chimps back to the wild.
At present, the sanctuary is home to 66 chimps. The program has successfully built three electric enclosures (1, 2 and 7 acres respectively) for the chimps, with funding from WSPA and technical assistance from Kenya. There are shelters for individual chimps, and at present, work is in progress to increase accommodation for more rescued chimps.
The rehabilitation program has been successful so far. Rescued chimps have been quick to adapt themselves to living in social groups, adopting wild fruit diet and several other ways to fend for themselves in the wild. Such response shown by the chimps to the rehabilitation program is remarkable, considering that some of the chimps have been exposed to domestic luxuries, like sleeping in bedrooms, drinking beverages, watching TV etc.
Tacugama has, since its inception, accommodated into its premises some wild chimps. The first and most notable visitor is ‘Miss Congoâ€TM (named after a near-by dam), a female chimp that frequented the sanctuary during the height of the Sierra Leone civil war (1995-1999). She visited the sanctuary to seek refuge from armed marauders. Another visitor named Tacugama, conceived in the sanctuary, but unfortunately, the baby died. Occasional barking and calls of other chimps are often heard deep in the forest around Tacugama.
Despite the profound success of the Chimp Rehabilitation Program, reintroducing the rehabilitated chimps to the wild still remains difficult. There is continuous destruction of their habitat, and the poaching of chimps is sill rife in the isolated pockets of forest, and most poachers are oblivious of the laws against poaching.
To raise public awareness on the essence of conservation, the Chimp Rehabilitation Program has established an environmental education program for schools and communities. The education program has gained momentum as many nature clubs and animal welfare organizations across the country have been formed in schools and communities. The sanctuary is also privileged to be benefiting from a weekly-live radio program on the environment, which is facilitated by the radio station of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone. The program has generated much debate and awareness on the current status of chimps and conservation in Sierra Leone.
Tourists visit the sanctuary for a fee to see the chimps in their semi-wild environment. There is also a huge bird life population in the forest around the sanctuary, and over 100 bird species have been identified. The sanctuary has been recognized by the National Tourists Board as an official tourist destination.
The program has also provided some developmental alternatives for the neighboring communities, getting them actively involved in protecting the forest around the sanctuary, and the few chimps within the forest.
In addition to the fact that members of these communities have free access to the sanctuary, four sanctuary personnel were recruited from these communities. The sanctuary has provided small grants and loans to some members of these communities, to undertake life-sustaining projects like vegetable gardening, bread baking, wood-lots management, and handicraft. The vegetables and handicrafts produced are often sold to tourists that visit the sanctuary.
Julie and the Gang
Mon, Nov 17, 2003
Vision Journal