Monkey Hill
Cape 3 Points Forest Reserve
Western Wetlands at the Ivory Coast Border
CC Began its project in Ghana through an invitation by Mark Fenn of The Coastal Resource Center (CRC) of the University of Rhode Island to act as an advisor to aspects of their coastal management planning that deals with some of the last coastal forests left in Ghana. An initial visit to three forests in western Ghana by CC Director Horwich in April 2011 began the process. Western Ghana has a number of endemic primates that are found only in Ghana and a few nearby countries. These include the olive colobus (Procolobus verus), Geoffroy’s black and white colobus (Colobus vellosus), the Rolaway monkey (Cercopithecus diana rolaway), the white naped managabey (Cercocebus atys lunulatus), the lesser spot nosed guenon (Cercopithicus petaurista petaurista) and Lowe’s guenon (Cercopithecus campbelli lowei). There is some evidence that Miss Waldron’s red colobus (Procolobus badius waldroni) may not be extinct as previously thought. There are also two nocturnal primates that are probably in the forests as well, the potto (Perodicticus potto) and the Demidoff’s bush baby (Galagoides demidoff).
Monkey Hill, Takoradi
Ghana-MonkeyHillWorking with CRC and its partner, Friends of the Nation, Horwich’s first program was to visit Monkey Hill and come up with some ideas about helping to turn Monkey Hill, a forest within the city, into a tourist attraction. It has a number of facilities including a hotel and restaurant that are now owned by Vodaphone that has recently taken ownership of some of the area. Horwich met with members of Friends of the Nation and some community members of New Takoradi. With their help he observed the forest its primates and other aspects of the forest. It is a nice forest but some residents use it as a garbage dump and latrine. Some initial suggestions are to involve the New Takoradi school children to begin to clean up the forest and to work with civil authorities and Vodaphone to create a better garbage collection system within and surrounding the park and to install some composting toilets around the periphery of Monkey Hill. Additionally, some low cost educational trails could be easily set up for tourists and local use. A guide system similar to that used by the Community Baboon Sanctuary could help create some income for local guides.
Cape 3 Points is the last remaining coastal forest in Ghana. Although there has been some logging, the main problem for primates has been in hunting for the bush meat trade that has reduced the primate populations considerably and made the monkeys shy and hard to see. There is a small tourism industry in the area involving mainly European tourists who come to see the forest, a waterfall, the beaches the lagoons and some architectural buildings that include the lighthouse in Cape 3 Points and a German castle built in the 1600’s in Princesstown.
In 2011, Horwich, accompanied by local villagers visited all of the villages around Cape 3 Points Forest Reserve to show them relevant examples of community conservation projects in Belize and India with a question period to find out about the needs of the villagers. Following these village meetings, CRC organized a general community meeting inviting 2 members from each village. There, the villagers discussed the successes and failures of some of the Ghana laws that involve community management of natural resources. What evolved from the meeting was how the communities were willing to help protect the forest but they wanted help in developing their livelihoods.
In a follow up visit, Horwich and members pf West African Primate Conservation Action and Coastal Resources Center met with the local community group (the Cape 3 Points CREMA) to discuss the status of the CREMA and what they have been doing for the past year. CREMA stands for Community Resource Management Areas. It was introduced into Ghana law in the early 2000s to encourage local communities to participate in forest sand wildlife conservation. The meeting discussed future plans which will include initiating a community protection plan for the Cape 3 Points Forests Reserve. The plan is to create small camps around the reserve that will be used by community villagers as bases to patrol the Forest Reserve on a continuous basis.
The CREMA consists of three inland ecosystems as well as the marine beaches and ecosystems. These include two wetland areas on the east and west side of the Reserve Forests and the Reserve Forest
Western Wetlands at the Ivory Coast Border
Another partner of CRC is the West African Primate Conservation Action (WAPCA), a regional NGO that is supported by and composed of a number of European Zoos. Their staff is on a steering committee for Cape 3 Points to help with the primates. WAPCA, with the Wildlife Division of Ghana are additionally searching un-surveyed forests to find new populations of primates in Ghana. One area that they are finding an abundance of primates is in a long wetlands extending vertically along the border of Ivory Coast where there is an adjacent wetland swamp with primates as well. This wetland is part of a number of Chiefdoms that may provide an opportunity to create a community reserve if the Chiefs and communities will agree to work with us.
CC and WAPCA received a grant from the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation to begin a survey of these western swamp forest to see what primate species are there. A preliminary survey indicated sightings of the roloway monkey, a subspecies of the Diana monkey that is disappearing from its rage within western Ghana and eastern Ivory Coast.
CC Director, Horwich, returned from a trip in early 2012. There, he worked with outgoing WAPCA Director Kathy Silenga and her replacement Jeanne Marie Pitman and
David Osei, WAPCA’s Field Coordinator initiating contacts with the Chiefs and communities in those swamp forests that border the Tanoé River, the border between Ivory Coast and Ghana. We traveled a great deal to contact the Chiefs and arrange meetings with them and the villagers. We were also assisted by Victor Agyemang Duah of the Wildlife Division. Osei and Horwich made oral presentations similar to presentations to the villages around the Cape 3 Points Reserve Forest, the previous year, Horwich told stories about Belize, whose culture showed some similarities to Ghana since the inhabitants were descendents of slaves from West Africa and Assam, India, whose community protection methods could be used in Ghana. Then they discussed the situation of the wetland forests along the Tanoé River. Usually they collectively addressed the Chiefs and their council members and the community members.
They additionally traveled with Drs. Inza Kone and André Djaha Koffi of WAPCA and Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire to see a community –based project there that was initiated in 2006. They visited four participating villages meeting with villagers and the Chief when available. They have been protecting the Ehy-Tanoé Forest that has a similar ecosystem and primate community to Western Ghana. The project had also stopped an oil palm project targeting their forest. Oil palm plantation have had a major effect on eastern Ivory Coast and consequently on the primates as well.
A final meeting was attended by representatives of most of the Chiefdoms we had visited and some representatives if the Ivory Coast. This meeting that included a powerpoint presentation by Horwich and Osei is the first step in bringing the participating communities together. We hope it will lead to a community reserve similar to that in the Ivory Coast with the possibility of a transnational community sanctuary in the future.
WAPCA - Primate Conservation in Action (B) from Hidden Picture Productions on Vimeo.
This film was produced by Hidden Picture Productions for West African Primate Conservation Action (WAPCA). It details the work of WAPCA in preserving endangered species of monkey in the forests of Western Ghana and Eastern Cote d'Ivoire, in particular the white-naped mangabey and the rolloway monkey. Due to deforestation and illegal hunting, these species are threatened with extinction. Funded by a group of European zoos, WAPCA works with government agencies and with communities near forest reserves to try and conserve these fragile populations.