Cocoa Farming and Primate Extirpation Inside Cote D'ivoire's Protected Areas

Abstract

Côte d'Ivoire is the world's leading cocoa producer, annually generating over 1,500,000 metric tons of Theobroma cacao beans. Growth of this agri-business has led to extensive deforestation in Côte d'Ivoire, where the majority of the country's forest (excluding that in Tai National Park) exists as small, fragmented forest islands. Most of these forest blocks are designated as national parks or forest reserves, i.e., protected areas (PAs), but wildlife within Côte d'Ivoire's PAs is increasingly threatened by two illegal activities: hunting and full sun cocoa farming. In this paper, we investigate the impact of cocoa production on primate populations inside protected areas. We surveyed twenty three PAs (5 national parks, 18 forest reserves) in Côte d'Ivoire to determine (1) the number of primate taxa present, (2) the number of human inhabitants living adjacent to or within each PA, (3) the extent of overall habitat degradation, and (4) the extent of habitat degradation due to cocoa farming. Our data reveal a significant positive correlation (r2 = .736, p < .01, α = 0.01) between cocoa farming and the absence of primate species inside Côte d'Ivoire's national parks and forest reserves. Thirteen of 23 protected areas surveyed have lost all primate populations, and four taxa - Colobus vellerosus (white-thighed black and white colobus), Colobus polykomos (Western black and white colobus), Procolobus badius waldroni (Miss Waldron's red colobus) and Procolobus badius badius (Bay colobus) – were not found in any PAs we visited. Aggressive conservation action is needed to curb hunting throughout Côte d'Ivoire, but unless illegal cocoa farming is similarly controlled, even effective enforcement of anti-hunting laws will not prevent the loss of additional primate diversity, since habitats capable of supporting primate populations – including those within protected areas - will no longer exist.