Charity Project

Charity
Project

Born Free

Born Free

PROJECT: Guardians of DJA – Protection of Primates
LOCATION OF IMPACT: Global NGOs Project impact Cameroon Dja
PROJECT COST: £250,000
Born Free’s goal is to increase the abundance of rare chimpanzees and gorillas in a great ape conservation priority area, the Dja Biosphere Reserve (DBR), Cameroon, and to foster a sustainable coexistence between local people and wildlife.

The Dja Faunal Reserve (5260 km2) is biodiverse and is recognised as an important priority landscape for great ape conservation. Chimpanzee, gorilla and forest elephant populations, however, have been declining rapidly over recent years and decades, mainly due to poaching and habitat degradation. It is estimated that only about 2,300 chimpanzees remain in this landscape, as few as <1,300 gorillas, and only 219 elephants.  Threats to their survival are grave; their habitat is logged and mined for its natural resource, their vital forest eco-system is overused, degraded, and suffering from the effects of climate change. They are shot and snared for bush meat or poached for the illegal wildlife trade. Families torn apart, leaving orphans alone, confused, and dangerously vulnerable.

End of year ceremony in CFA @APGS & BFF

The DBR is home to central chimpanzees (officially Endangered on the IUCN Red List), western Lowland gorillas (Critically Endangered), forest elephants (Critically Endangered), three pangolin species (Vulnerable), plus leopards, buffalo, bongo, many primate and ungulate species, reptiles and birds.

MPI-EVA PanAf Great Apes in Dja

It is also home to many rural communities of Badjoue and Bantu, classed as ‘extreme poor’, living with hand-to-mouth economies and whose traditional livelihoods include hunting and slash-and-burn farming. The northeast corner of the reserve, where there are 11 villages (~3,000 people), is one of a few key areas recently recognised as warranting extra protection, because great ape abundance is high and human activity not as intense as elsewhere across the faunal reserve. Initially focusing our actions in the villages Malen V, Doumo Pierre, Mimpala, Eschou, Madjuh I, and Doumo Mama, while some of our outreach activities will extend to an additional five villages.

MPI-EVA PanAf Great Apes in Dja