Forest elephant populations in the Central African Republic and Congo

Abstract

Fay's portion focuses on CAR, page 4 to 12, while the remainder focussed on the Congo pages 12 to 19 is written by both authors. The appendix entitled the Nouabale Brief summarizes biodiversity of the area and the programme planning required to conserve the Nouabale area in the Congo and the adjacent Dzanga-Sangha area in CAR. The ivory trade is estimated to have reduced the wild population of the African elephant by half in the past decade. Until recently very little was known of the elephant population in the Congo and there was a dearth of data about the situation within other central African forest areas. Results from studies on populations in three study sites corresponding to the the main forest blocks found in Central Africa Republic and three survey sites the northern Congo are presented. No elephants were recorded in the Ngoto forest area in southwestern CAR, the extrapolated population for the proposed Dzanga-Sangha Reserve is 3600 while that for the Ndanda region is 2640. Population density rather than population estimates is presented for the northern Congo, the density compares favourably with that of neighbouring countries and in spite of high poaching activity there could be as many as 25,000 elephants in this region.