A mix of community-based conservation and
protected forests is needed for the survival of the
Endangered pygmy hippopotamus Choeropsis
liberiensis
A NNIKA H ILLERS ,G RAEME M. B UCHANAN ,J ERRY C. G ARTEH ,S OLOMON M. T OMMY
M OHAMED L. F OFANA and J EREMY A. L INDSELL
Abstract The contribution of protected areas to biodiversity
conservation is well attested but many taxa in many regions
remain dependent on the unprotected wider landscape. To
develop conservation plans for large mammals such as the
Endangered pygmy hippopotamus Choeropsis liberiensis of
West Africa’s Upper Guinea Forests it is critical to under-
stand the importance of unprotected land. Despite being a
conservation priority, little is known about the habitat asso-
ciations of this species, or its distribution across its range.
Through a combination of field surveys, species distribution
models and community questionnaires we investigated the
use of unprotected areas by the pygmy hippopotamus in the
Sierra Leone–Liberia border region. We found signs of
the species in of -km
cells surveyed. Our analysis
suggested that the species is reasonably widespread in this
region and is associated with major rivers. It occurred
close to, but rarely within, large areas of intact forest, and
.% of pygmy hippopotamus signs were recorded outside
protected areas. The expansion of the protected area net-
work in this area is unrealistic in Sierra Leone and to
some extent in Liberia, mainly because of anthropogenic
pressure and the overlap of proposed protected areas with
mining and logging concessions. Thus pygmy hippopot-
amus conservation activities in the region need to include
programmes on community lands while maintaining a ro-
bust network of protected forests. Community-based con-
servation of the pygmy hippopotamus may prove valuable
for other threatened and endemic species that are not con-
fined to protected areas in this region.
Keywords Agricultural expansion, community-based con-
servation, community forests, large mammals, protected
area, pygmy hippopotamus, species distribution model,
Upper Guinea Forest ecosystem
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Introduction
P
rotected areas are the foundation for global efforts to
conserve biodiversity and natural ecosystem processes
(Rodrigues et al., ; Laurance et al., ). However, ana-
lysis of threatened birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles
at both continental and global scales suggests that protected
areas offer inadequate coverage of the ranges of these groups
(De Klerk et al., ; Rodrigues et al., ; Beresford et al.,
a,b; Butchart et al., ). Multiple-use landscapes and
unprotected areas are important for species survival
(Gardner et al., ; Perfecto & Vandermeer, ), espe-
cially where the existing network of protected areas does not
entirely cover species’ ranges and suitable habitats; e.g. for
some large mammalian carnivores (Forrest et al., ;
Swanepoel et al., ) and migratory herbivores (Western
et al., ). In some cases the expansion of the protected
area network is recommended for more effective protection
(Forrest et al., ; Tweh et al., ) but this may not always
be feasible (Butchart et al., ), especially in regions where
conservation efforts compete with other land uses, such as
logging, mineral extraction and agriculture. In many tropic-
al regions, such land use conflicts represent a threat not only
to remaining natural habitats outside protected areas but
even to the protected areas themselves (Forrest et al., ;
Laurance et al., ; Tweh et al., ). A rapidly increasing
human population is predicted to result in a further major
expansion of tropical agriculture and associated encroach-
ment of protected areas, particularly in Sub-Saharan
Africa and South America (Laurance et al., ). The per-
sistence of large mammals in such regions will therefore de-
pend to a great extent on their ability to survive in such
mixed landscapes.
Within the forest zone of West Africa, protected areas
cover c. % of the remaining Upper Guinean Forest
ANNIKA HILLERS* (Corresponding author) and GRAEME M. BUCHANAN RSPB
Centre for Conservation Science, The Royal Society for the Protection of
Birds, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire, SG19 2DL, UK
E-mail annika.hillers@rspb.org.uk
JERRY C. GARTEH Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia, Congotown,
Monrovia, Liberia
SOLOMON M. TOMMY and MOHAMED L. FOFANA, Gola Rainforest National Park,
Kenema, Sierra Leone
JEREMY A. LINDSELL A Rocha International, London, UK
*Also at: Gola Rainforest National Park, Kenema, Sierra Leone
Received July . Revision requested September .
Accepted February . First published online June .
Oryx, 2017, 51(2), 230–239 © 2016 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S003060531600020X
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