Conservation Value of Africa’s Flooded Habitats to Non-human Primates

Citation

Nowak K, Maisels F, Baker LR & Rainey H (2019) Conservation Value of Africa’s Flooded Habitats to Non-human Primates. In: Nowak K, Barnett AA & Matsuda I (eds.) Primates in flooded habitats: ecology and conservation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 341-346. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316466780

Abstract
First paragraph: Non-human primates occur in, and use, a variety of permanently and seasonally flooded habitats in sub-Saharan Africa. Such habitats include swamp, mangrove, marsh, littoral, riparian and gallery forests, as well as bais (open swampy clearings) and seasonally flooded grasslands (Bennett et al.; Chapter 2, this volume). To date, the study and conservation of most African primate species have focused on populations in terra firma (never-flooded) habitats, while flooded habitats have been under-emphasized in the primate ecology and conservation literature and under-represented in Africa’s protected area network (Gautier-Hion & Brugiere Reference Gautier-Hion and Brugière2005). In Central Africa (from the Nigeria–Cameroon border eastward to the Albertine Rift), only 6.6% of the region’s vast swamp forests lie within protected areas, compared to 17.0% of terra firma forests; mangroves are better represented, but occur within just 13.5% of protected areas in the region (Table 43.1).