By Kemo Cham
Despite government’s declaration of Chimpanzees as the national animal of Sierra Leone, they continue to face a growing threat of extinction due to rapid deforestation of their habitats, environmentalists and conservationists have warned.
They said in the last 18 months there have been a rapid increase in the number of the animals seeking sanctuary after their habitat were destroyed. The Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary (TCS) said it has received on average one animal per month within the period.
The warning comes less than seven months after the government declared Chimpanzee as the national animal in an effort to protect them from imminent extinction. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security also declared the TCS as the number one eco-tourism destination in the country.
TSC, located at Regent in the outskirts of Freetown, is the only sanctuary for chimpanzees in the country. Tacugama is also actively engaged offsite in community outreach, wildlife field research, environmental sustainability, conservation education and alternative livelihoods programs.
In a joint statement, TSC, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security and the Protected Area Authority said between July 2018 and July 2019, the threats faced by the animals reached new alarming heights. According to the statement, information gathered by TSC field officers revealed that humans were hunting the mother chimps for the bush meat trade and capturing their babies. It added that the orphaned chimpanzees received by TSC are brought mainly Pujehun, Moyamba, Port Loko and Koinadugu districts.
“This illegal activity, plus the extensive illegal logging, mining and encroachment inside protected areas, are jeopardizing the survival of the chimpanzees,” the statement said.
“We urge all Sierra Leoneans to save the country’s national animal from extinction before it is too late,” it added.
According to Sierra Leone’s Wildlife Conservation Act of 1972, it is illegal to possess, capture, kill or keep chimpanzees, which are locally referred to as Babu, as pets.
Chimpanzees are a flagship species for the country’s tropical forest and woodland areas and play a key role in maintaining the health and diversity of their ecosystems. Environmentalists say their decline and potential extinction is likely to precipitate the decline of other culturally, economically and ecologically important species and the ecosystem in which they live.
In 2016, the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) elevated the status of the Western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) to ‘Critically Endangered' because in the past 24 years its population had drastically reduced by more than 80% as a result of poaching, loss of habitat and habitat fragmentation due to human activities.
Chimpanzees have already disappeared from four African countries.
The statement from the Forestry Ministry, which was also signed by the Ministry of Tourism and the Tourist Board, called on Sierra Leoneans to take several actions, including enforcement of the ban on killing and capturing chimpanzees by all chiefdom authorities and reporting anyone seen with a chimpanzee to the nearest police station or local authority.
Sierra Leoneans are also urged to desist from eating chimpanzee meat and to refuse to buy any chimpanzees (dead or alive) or their body parts.
“Chimpanzees are part of Sierra Leone's culture and heritage, as such, we have a moral duty to conserve their legacy and share with future generations. It is our responsibility to react, protect and preserve them,” it said.
But some conservationist blame the government for the situation facing the animals.
The Western Area Peninsula Forest, within which the TCS is located, is officially a protected area under Sierra Leone’s environmental laws. Established some 25 years ago, the sanctuary is home to about a 100 chimps on-site. It has been run exclusively by private people who have had to deal with threats of human domination on the environment.
As part of efforts to fend off the human threat, the TCS management, through donor support, has engaged in mass sensitization of communities living around the sanctuary about the importance of the forests and provided them with alternative sources of income to discourage the cutting of trees.
The TSC management lamented that the government has not done anything to support the sanctuary over the years, citing the deplorable nature of the road leading to the sanctuary which badly needs repair.
Bala Amarasekaran, Founder and Director of TCS, said the declarations haven’t been marched with action by the government.
According to him, within 18 months they have received 16 orphaned chimps. This, he noted, means that the authorities are not enforcing environmental laws which is causing people to cut the forest and leaving the animals vulnerable. Amarasekaran said some of the animals are brought to the sanctuary badly wounded or malnourished. He said for every chimp that is brought to the sanctuary, about eight others are killed in the wild.
“If one kills a Panda in China for example, he/she will likely go to jail for 30 years while in America one can be fined $5,000 and a year’s imprisonment for killing a bald eagle. But in Sierra Leone, people kill, rear and eat chimps with impunity in spite of the chimp been declared the national animal,” said Mr Amarasekaran.
© 2019 Politico Online
