Distribution and protected area coverage of endemic taxa in West Africa’s Biafran forests and highlands Richard A. Bergl a,b, *, John F. Oates b,c,d , Roger Fotso e a Anthropology Program, City University of New York Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA b New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, USA c Anthropology Department, Hunter College, City University of New York, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10021, USA d Wildlife Conservation Society, Nigeria Biodiversity Research Programme, 109A Marian Road, Calabar, Nigeria e Wildlife Conservation Society, Cameroon Programme, P.O. Box 3055, Messa, Yaounde, Cameroon ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 14 June 2005 Received in revised form 16 June 2006 Accepted 8 August 2006 Available online 5 October 2006 Keywords: Endemism Gulf of Guinea Highland areas Protected areas ABSTRACT The forests and highlands along the southern portion of the Nigeria-Cameroon border and on the island of Bioko have long been recognized as being biologically diverse. This region (referred to as the Biafran forests and highlands) is a center of endemism for a wide variety of taxa including, but not limited to, primates, anuran amphibians, birds, freshwater fish, butterflies, dragonflies, and trees. Though these groups have diverse distributions, conser- vation efforts have to date largely been focused on lowland areas. We conducted a GIS- based analysis of point locality records for three groups characterized by high endemism (primates, anuran amphibians, birds) in order to examine both their spatial and altitudinal distribution throughout the study area. We also evaluated the distribution of existing and potential protected areas relative to highland areas and the distribution of endemics. Our analysis suggests that the existing protected area system provides poor coverage of mon- tane habitats and their associated endemic taxa. Complementarity analysis suggests that, if the protected area network were expanded to include a small number of highland sites, coverage of endemic taxa could be significantly improved. Many of these important high- land sites are currently under intense pressure from habitat loss and hunting. If the full range of biodiversity present in the Biafran forests and highlands is to be preserved, new protected areas should be gazetted that take the varied distributions of the regions ende- mic taxa into account. Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The area within the West African rain-forest zone between the Rivers Cross and Sanaga, including the continental-shelf island of Bioko and the associated Cameroon Highlands (re- ferred to collectively herein as the Biafran forests and high- lands) is a region of unusual ecological richness and diversity (Oates et al., 2004). This region has the highest mountain in West Africa, the volcano of Mount Cameroon (4095 m), part of a chain of highlands along a volcanic line that extends NW–SE from north-central Cameroon into the Gulf of Guinea (Marzoli et al., 2000). The region also contains one of the largest relatively intact blocks of contiguous forest in West Africa (approximately 26,000 km 2 ; Oates et al., 2004), and has the highest mean annual rainfall on the African con- tinent (Fraser et al., 1998). 0006-3207/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2006.08.013 * Corresponding author: Address: Anthropology Program, City University of New York Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA. Tel.: +1 212 772 4064; fax: +1 212 772 5423. E-mail address: rbergl@gc.cuny.edu (R.A. Bergl). BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION 134 (2007) 195 – 208 available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon