Abass Camara
In Guinea, the GFBH includes key biodiversity areas, notably the Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve and the Ziama Biosphere Reserve, both UNESCO sites. These two sites are home to the three species of pangolins found in West Africa: the white-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis) and the giant pangolin (Smutsia gigantea), both classified as ‘endangered’ (IUCN Red List 2024), and the black-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tetradactyla), classified as ‘vulnerable’ (IUCN Red List 2024). All three are classified as Class A: meaning that they are fully protected from hunting and trade in accordance with Article 57 of Law L/2018/0049/AN of 20 June 2018, which classifies wildlife in Guinea into two categories (fully protected and partially protected species) based on the level of threat (MEDD, 2018). However, these species are threatened by significant exploitation for consumption and medicinal products at local and global levels. Despite these known threats, literature and research on pangolins are limited, resulting in a lack of quantitative information needed to guide sound conservation actions.
The objective of this project is to fill critical knowledge gaps in the planning and action phases of pangolin conservation in Guinea by combining existing data on pangolin presence with local ecological knowledge (LEK) and advanced modelling to understand the factors influencing pangolin distribution in Guinea and the influence of future climate change on this distribution. We aim to achieve this objective by achieving the following objectives:
- Objective 1: Use species distribution modelling to identify sensitive areas in Guinea for each of the three pangolin species through a better understanding of the ecological and anthropogenic factors that influence their distribution and how this distribution may change in response to climate change.
- Objective 2: Validate the accuracy of each distribution model by field verification of the presence of pangolins in three randomly selected areas in Guinea that are considered suitable but have not yet been explored