The White-crested Helmetshrike is one in every of 240 chicken species documented in a brand new examine of Fazao-Malfakassa Nationwide Park, Togo. Picture by Sylvain Uriot.
Birds have lengthy served as indicators of ecological well being, and within the case of Fazao-Malfakassa Nationwide Park in Togo, they’re sending a transparent alarm. This protected space is dealing with rising stress as extra individuals transfer into the realm and encroach on the park. These adjustments led a gaggle of scientists to look at how nicely the park is doing by learning the birds that reside there. Fazao-Malfakassa is the final massive pure space in Togo, nevertheless it has not been studied in depth, though it offers important pure sources and ecosystem companies. As human actions improve within the space, together with poaching, tree reducing, and clearing land to farm, the researchers wished to evaluate the conservation standing of wildlife within the park and the effectiveness of present park administration.
A analysis crew on the Worldwide Fowl Conservation Partnership (IBCP), a non-governmental group targeted on defending birds and their habitats, got down to doc birds within the park and assess threats to the park from human actions. The crew shared their findings in Land, a peer-reviewed scientific journal that options analysis in environmental science. Their undertaking, carried out over a number of years, recorded a excessive range of chicken species within the park, together with the primary report of Emin’s Shrike in Togo, the primary sighting of the Nice Blue Turaco since 1990, and first observations of the Abyssinian Floor-Hornbill since 2019.
In whole, the analysis crew documented 240 chicken species, together with 34 species new to the park. Many of those birds at the moment are discovered solely in Fazao-Malfakassa Nationwide Park in Togo, displaying simply how essential the park is. On the similar time, nonetheless, the crew failed to search out proof of 91 chicken species beforehand documented within the park, together with the Hooded Vulture, White-backed Vulture, and Yellow-casqued Hornbill, all of that are thought-about prone to world extinction by the Worldwide Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In lots of circumstances, these “lacking” species survived solely on this park in Togo, and their disappearance from the park means their extirpation from Togo, which is deeply regarding.
Dr. Nico Arcilla, senior creator of the publication, defined, “We have been unable to doc dozens of chicken species beforehand reported for the park throughout our surveys, suggesting a steep decline in chicken range.” She continued, “The declines and extirpations of raptors, together with endangered and critically endangered species of vultures and eagles, means that the present strategy to defending wildlife right here will not be adequate.”
This downside is much more worrying due to what has already occurred elsewhere in Togo. Two different nationwide parks within the nation have been virtually fully destroyed by human actions. With out vital adjustments in park administration, Fazao-Malfakassa might face the identical future. Throughout their fieldwork documenting birds within the park, the researchers discovered ample proof of poaching, timber lower down for honey, and the wholesale destruction of forest to develop crops. In addition they discovered massive areas the place timber have been incinerated to provide business charcoal, a well-liked gasoline in Africa that’s made by slowly burning wooden to be used in cooking, and proof of huge herds of cattle grazing. All of those actions are banned within the park as a result of they destroy its wildlife and habitat, however proof of them was discovered all through the park, even near ranger stations, demonstrating that legal guidelines are being damaged in plain sight with out consequence.
The analysis additionally revealed a number of the components enabling these damaging actions. Individuals making and promoting charcoal can earn in just some weeks what a park ranger would earn over months or years. Such circumstances create perverse incentives for individuals to interrupt the principles. For instance, a number of the males concerned in charcoal manufacturing and herding cattle within the park advised the analysis crew they have been working for highly effective enterprise individuals with connections to authorities officers. When the park shifted from personal to authorities management in 2015, regulation enforcement weakened, and harmful actions elevated. Park rangers have additionally reported that lots of the individuals they’ve arrested are merely launched afterwards and allowed to return to the park to proceed their unlawful actions with impunity.
The Abyssinian Floor-Hornbill, which is taken into account weak to world extinction by the IUCN, was widespread in Togo up to now however now has been extirpated in every single place however Fazao-Malfakassa Nationwide Park; nonetheless, this can be very uncommon, with sightings of solely three birds within the final six years. Picture by Sylvain Gatti.
Even with these critical challenges, there are clear paths ahead to avoid wasting Togo’s final remaining massive protected space. To deal with the conflicts of curiosity that at present undermine regulation enforcement, park administration ought to ideally be turned over to the supervision of a personal basis, which has been demonstratably simpler at defending wildlife and habitats in comparison with state administration in Togo. The researchers additionally suggest higher help for rangers working to implement the legal guidelines defending the park, monitoring wildlife via counts and surveys to trace what’s occurring within the park, and outreach to native communities. Conducting common counts of birds and mammals helps measure whether or not conservation efforts are working by monitoring traits within the park’s wildlife and habitats. The objective is not only to cease the harm however to deliver again a few of what has been misplaced. If these adjustments aren’t made quickly, Fazao-Malfakassa might turn into one other misplaced piece of Africa’s pure heritage.
Journal Reference
Kaboumba, L.-E.M., Di Lecce, I., Afiademanyo, Ok.M., Kourdjouak, Y., Arcilla, N. “Assessing Threats to Fazao-Malfakassa Nationwide Park, Togo, Utilizing Birds as Indicators of Biodiversity Conservation.” Land, 2025, 14(2), 225. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/land14020225
Picture Credit
Sylvain Uriot, Nico Arcilla, Sylvain Gatti.
In regards to the Authors
Nico Arcilla is president of IBCP, whose mission is to foster and help analysis, outreach, and partnerships to advance the conservation of birds worldwide. She earned her PhD on the College of Georgia, USA, and is an affiliate fellow on the College of Nebraska, USA and a member of the IUCN Species Survival Fee Hornbill Specialist Group. Her analysis and conservation initiatives within the Americas, Pacific and Caribbean islands, Africa and Madagascar, and Europe and the Center East have contributed to just about 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles thus far.
Lin-Ernni Mikégraba Kaboumba is a conservation scientist with the Worldwide Fowl Conservation Partnership (IBCP) who just lately earned a MSc on the College of Lomé, Togo. His analysis focuses on birds, their habitats, and conservation threats in Fazao-Malfakassa Nationwide Park, in addition to sacred forests, critically endangered vultures, and unlawful wildlife commerce, amongst different pressing conservation challenges. Kaboumba is at present researching Abyssinian Floor-Hornbills, that are virtually extinct in a lot of West Africa and survive in Togo solely in Fazao-Malfakassa Nationwide Park.
Irene Di Lecce is a PhD scholar on the College of Warsaw, Poland, the place she research promiscuity of passerine birds breeding in pure cavities in a primeval and concrete forest, and in nest-boxes set in a gradient of urbanisation. She earned her MSc in Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology on the College of Milan, Italy, with a thesis on the influence of ectoparasites and their pathogens on migratory songbirds. As a analysis fellow with IBCP, she is targeted on chicken analysis and conservation points, particularly in West and Central Africa.
Komlan Afiademanyo is Professor of Zoology on the College of Lomé, Togo, and earned his PhD from the Institute of Zoology on the College of Liège, Belgium. He has performed analysis contributing to scientific publications on a variety of wildlife taxa, together with birds, mammals, mollusks, crustaceans, fish, and herpetofauna, in addition to on bushmeat and invasive species. He collaborates with IBCP on analysis on birds and different wildlife in Fazao-Malfakassa Nationwide Park in Togo.
Yendoubouam Kourdjouak studied zoology on the College of Lomé, Togo, and is each a profitable entrepreneur in Lomé and IBCP’s Africa Mission Supervisor. Yendoubouam facilitates and assists chicken analysis, outreach, and partnerships in Togo, together with in Fazao-Malfakassa Nationwide Park and Togodo Wildlife Reserve. He additionally contributes to and helps IBCP initiatives in Bénin, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Chad with a concentrate on analysis in addition to group outreach and training, environmental restoration, and nature safety.
