Event

Endangered Species: Conservation of Mangabey Primates and Local Communities in Ghana

In the middle of the Guinean forests of Ghana is Ankasa National Park, the home to, among other species, the mangabeys, endemic primates whose survival is threatened by a past of deforestation and hunting by local communities. These animals were used for both food and for sale on the black market.

In an attempt to change this situation, the White-naped Mangabey (Cercocebus atys lunulatus) Conservation Project is being carried out in Ghana, financed by the Zoo, which, together with the University of Barcelona, West African Primate Conservation Action and Wildlife Division, the latter two Ghana based, has a twofold mission. The first aim is to free and reintroduce into Ankasa National Park some of the primates captive in the zoo in Accra (the country’s capital) after subjecting them to a process of behavioural rehabilitation in semi-freedom. The second is to conduct an important community intervention project with the communities living around the Park to enable them to manage the natural resources sustainably. This will involve a process of environmental awareness that will contribute to the conservation of Ankasa National Park and, therefore, the white-naped mangabeys.

The twofold approach of the project, working with the primates and with local communities, brought together the synergies of specialists in the subject: primatologists and social and community psychologists.