In 2009, Philipp Henschel from the Panthera Lion Programme embarked upon a mission to survey the last strongholds of the West African lion. It had long been known that lions and other wildlife were in worse shape in West Africa than in Southern and East Africa. Still, the lion conservation community didn’t know how serious the situation was. Philipp surveyed 21 parks and reserves, and his findings were startling. Lions persisted in just four protected areas in West Africa, and the remaining numbers, even in those parks, were low–well below 500 animals across the entire region.
By far, the most significant remaining lion population occurred in the W-Arly-Pendjari (WAP) complex of protected areas, which straddles Benin, Burkina Faso, and Niger. Since then, severe political instability has emerged in Niger and Burkina Faso, meaning that those parks are unmanaged and unprotected. Lions persist in the Beninese side of the WAP complex, and the Lion Recovery Fund (LRF) supports the efforts of African Parks to manage Pendjari National Park and Parc W in partnership with the Beninese authorities. Philipp also confirmed lion presence in Yankari Game Reserve and in Kainji Lake National Park in Nigeria, albeit at very low densities. However, since then, lions have been confirmed to have disappeared from Yankari, and armed groups have occupied Kainji Lake, preventing effective management. It is thus unknown whether lions still occur there.
Henschel, P, et al. 2014. “The lion in West Africa is critically endangered.” PLoS One 9.1: e83500.
Lions were recorded in just one other park in West Africa: Niokolo-Koba National Park in Senegal, which, at 3,525 sq. miles, is the second largest protected area in the region. There, Philipp estimated a population of just 10-15 individuals remained. However, he was encouraged by the fact that massive areas of pristine, intact habitat remained and the park retained founder populations of key lion prey species. However, during the survey, many poaching signs were observed, and it was clear that urgent action was needed to halt the decline in the number of lions and other wildlife. To illustrate the seriousness of the situation, Philipp interviewed several park staff during the survey, with a combined field experience of several decades spent in the park; none of them had ever seen a lion. Lions were absolutely on the brink of local extinction in Niokolo-Koba. Driven by the urge to do something to protect this park, Philipp and Panthera engaged in discussions with Senegal’s wildlife authorities, DPN, about the possibility of forming a partnership to help support the area’s management. Luckily, these discussions went well, and Panthera commenced their work in 2017.
When commencing their work in Niokolo-Koba, Panthera noticed that DPN was blessed with many rangers but was critically short of operational funding. A key focus of initial fundraising was to secure the resources necessary to allow for the rollout of regular patrols. Panthera initially focused their work on a 579 sq. mile intensive protection zone (IPZ), while they scaled their resources up. The first step taken was to equip, train, and deploy two mobile anti-poaching brigades within the park while simultaneously working to improve road access and to fix up critical infrastructure, such as ranger housing. Such was the intensity of illegal activity in the park; the early results were astonishing. The two mobile anti-poaching teams located 30 poacher camps and made numerous arrests in the first six months. After securing the IPZ, Panthera was invited to work in the remainder of the park. Over time, they gradually scaled up their efforts in supporting DPN to allow for a gradually more significant proportion of the park to be protected.
The success of Panthera’s work rests on a solid and genuine partnership with DPN. Two senior DPN officers, Commandant Assane Kandji, and Captain Lang Halima Diedhiou, have been seconded to the Panthera team, respectively assuming the role of Head of Park Operations and Head of Anti-Poaching Support in the joint Panthera-DPN team, ensuring a strong working relationship. Their skill and dedication is a massive boost to the park.
Additionally, Panthera has trained an impressive team of other Senegalese staff. For example, Mouhamadou Mody Ndiaye is Panthera’s survey coordinator, heading up a very intensive survey effort, involving camera trap grids that extend across the entire park. Mouhamadou’s job is to roll these out with a biannual frequency: one year, the grid is rolled out across the whole park to look at the occupancy and frequency of capture of all wildlife species. In the second year, camera trapping is done specifically to survey large lions and other large carnivores.
This work has enabled Panthera to document changes in the population size of lions (and some other species where individuals are easily identified from coat patterns), and in distribution within the park. They found that the number of lions has steadily increased to at least 40 individuals, and that the distribution of most wildlife species has grown dramatically within the park as a more significant portion of it has come under effective management. Panthera also uses SMART law enforcement software to monitor patterns in illegal activities in the park over time and space. SMART data has shown that poaching has dropped over time, allowing wildlife populations to recover.
Panthera’s work in Niokolo-Koba was one of the first projects that the LRF supported back in 2017, and since then, we have provided funding continuously. With support from the LRF, Ayers Wild Cat Conservation Trust, Fondation Segre, Global Wildlife, and others, Panthera increased the number of mobile teams to three and then to six, which has had a massive impact on poaching in the park. Much remains to be done, as the park is huge and ideally needs another four mobile patrol teams. In addition, Niokolo-Koba is part of a larger complex of protected areas within Senegal and in neighbouring Guinea Conakry, all of which need urgent support. The case for investing in conservation efforts in the Niokolo-Koba ecosystem is compelling.
The northern lion sub-species is considered Endangered, and the West African clade is likely to be declared Critically Endangered. With the unrest affecting WAP and the uncertainty of the status of lions in Kainji Lake National Park, Niokolo-Koba assumes outsize importance. The park also contains West Africa’s only population of wild dogs–the only population for at least 3,100 miles. An estimated 30 painted dogs are remaining in the park in four packs. The Zoological Society of London has established Project Lycaon to understand the conservation issues facing the remaining painted dogs in Niokolo-Koba and to help protect them. Indeed, Wildlife Conservation Network’s Painted Dog Fund has already granted this important work. Niokolo-Koba also contains the only remaining population of West African Lord Derby Eland, plus West Africa’s largest population of leopards, a key population of Endangered West African crocodiles, and important populations of many other species, including chimpanzees.
This crucially important ‘collateral biodiversity’ emphasises the importance of the LRF’s approach to investing in landscape management and protection across the lion range. All species benefit from elevated landscape protection, so the grants that the LRF issues are about much more than lions. The Niokolo-Koba example also emphasises how much there is to gain from investing in collaborative management partnerships to support the management of critically underfunded parks. Without such investment, many protected African areas risk being completely denuded of their wildlife. Luckily, that has not happened in Niokolo-Koba. While the investment came too late for the elephants (just one individual remains in the park), other wildlife species are recovering strongly. We want to express our sincere thanks and congratulations to DPN and Panthera for these achievements. Senegal is a beautiful, exciting country. Those of you who have never been, please consider putting it and Niokolo-Koba on your bucket list. A new, beautiful lodge recently opened in the park, in a spectacular location overlooking the majestic Gambia River, offering a comfortable base for exploring this spectacular West African wilderness area.