Protecting the Last Great Apes of the Lebialem Highlands
Tucked into the highlands of southwest Cameroon, a forest holds one of the world’s most extraordinary secrets: a remnant population of Cross River gorillas – the rarest great apes on Earth – sharing their habitat with endangered Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees, forest elephants, pangolins, and dozens of other threatened species. This is the Lebialem Highlands, a biodiversity hotspot that remains largely unknown to the outside world. Your support is helping to change that — and to keep this landscape alive.
What We Found: A Landscape Full of Life
Surveys were conducted across three key sites: the Tofala Hill Wildlife Sanctuary, a proposed new wildlife sanctuary in the Njoagwi Fotabong III Essoh Attah forest, and the Tofala-Mone Genetic Corridor linking them. Using camera traps, GPS devices, and systematic foot surveys, teams documented great apes and a wide range of other species across more than 57,000 hectares of forest.
The critically endangered Cross River gorilla – with fewer than 300 individuals believed to remain in the world — continues to persist in the Lebialem Highlands. Feeding signs, footprints, and camera trap images confirmed their presence across two of the three survey sites. In the corridor, no gorilla signs were recorded this period, likely reflecting increased human disturbance in that area – a concern the project is actively working to address.
On chimpanzees, the news is more encouraging. Across all three sites, teams recorded hundreds of nests, movement tracks, vocalisations, and feeding sites. Camera traps captured mothers with infants – a hopeful sign of reproduction and gradual population recovery. The number of nests recorded was higher than in the previous survey period, suggesting the population may be slowly stabilising under the protection these areas provide.
African forest elephants were detected across two sites through dung, tracks, and feeding signs – their presence confirming the landscape’s vital importance as a migration corridor between larger protected areas. Other threatened species documented include pangolins (with three direct sightings, including one individual rescued after a chimpanzee attack), the endangered Bannerman’s Turaco, hornbill birds, pottos, galagos, drills, and Preuss’s guenons. In total, 14 species of conservation concern were recorded in the sanctuary alone.
The Threats: Real and Growing
Alongside every wildlife sighting, teams also recorded the human pressures bearing down on this landscape. Hundreds of wire snares, gun shells, hunters’ bush camps, and newly cleared farms were logged inside protected areas across all three sites. Wire snares were the most frequently encountered threat indicator, followed by agricultural encroachment — both signs of communities under severe economic stress.
The root cause is poverty, compounded by a prolonged regional crisis that has displaced thousands of people into communities bordering these forests. Schools have closed, livelihoods have collapsed, and families have turned to hunting and farming inside protected areas simply to survive. Without addressing these underlying pressures, no conservation effort can fully succeed.
Our activities
Rangers, government staff, and community members were trained in field data collection, camera trap operation, GPS use, and great ape sign identification — building the local capacity needed for long-term, community-rooted monitoring.
Significant progress was made toward the formal protection of the Njoagwi Fotabong III Essoh Attah forest, an area of 4,200 hectares that is home to gorillas, chimpanzees, and forest elephants but currently lacks official protected status. Boundary surveys were completed, community consultations were held, and a provisional management team was established. The scientific data gathered will be submitted to government policymakers to support the area’s official gazettement as a wildlife sanctuary.
On livelihoods, cooperatives working in beekeeping, livestock, poultry, palm oil, and non-timber forest products received training and practical support. A palm oil processing unit was revamped, producing over 100 containers of oil for local sale. Women’s groups received snail farming starter kits, and dozens of internally displaced women were trained in soap production. These are small steps, but they build toward a future where communities have real alternatives to depending on the forest for survival.
Why It Matters
The gorillas and chimpanzees of the Lebialem Highlands are still here. The forests are still standing. But they are under pressure, and that pressure is growing. What makes this landscape different from so many other conservation stories is that the people living alongside these animals are not the enemy — they are potential stewards, given the right support.
Sustained investment in monitoring, alternative livelihoods, and formal protection is what will tip the balance. Thank you for being part of that effort.