Most of the world’s gorillas and about one-third of all chimpanzees live in Western Equatorial Africa. The Endangered central chimpanzee Pan troglodytes troglodytes and the Critically Endangered western lowland gorilla Gorilla gorilla gorilla inhabit the rainforest of six countries: Angola (Cabinda enclave), Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo. These great apes are undergoing a dramatic decline due to poaching, disease and habitat loss, driven by demands for bushmeat, a lack of law enforcement, by corruption, and by increased access to their once-remote habitat. More recently the forest itself has come under threat from the expansion of industrial agriculture, which will result in massive losses of great ape habitat unless rapid, targeted action is taken. Conservation strategies and actions must be designed to respond to these pressures to maintain great ape populations at their present numbers.

Citation: IUCN (2014). Regional Action Plan for the Conservation of Western Lowland Gorillas and Central Chimpanzees 2015– 2025. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group. 56 pp.