Saving the Last West African Giraffe Population: A Review of Its Conservation Status and Management

Abstract

The West African giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis peralta) was historically spread across much of the Sudano-Sahelian zone but is now restricted to Niger. Several factors resulted in their dramatic decline during the late 20th century. In 1996, only 49 individuals remained, concentrated in the ‘Giraffe Zone’. Conservation activities implemented by the Government of Niger, supported by local communities and NGOs, facilitated their population numbers to increase. This review summarizes past and present conservation activities and evaluates their impact to advise and prioritize future conservation actions for the West African giraffe. The long-term conservation of the West African giraffe is highly dependent on the local communities who live alongside them, as well as supplementary support from local and international partners. Recent conservation initiatives range from community-based monitoring to the fitting of GPS satellite tags to better understand their habitat use, spatial movements to expansion areas, and environmental education to the establishment of the first satellite population of West African giraffe in Gadabedji Biosphere Reserve, the latter serving as a flagship for the future restoration of large mammal populations in West Africa. The integration of modern technologies and methods will hopefully provide better-quality data, improved spatial analyses, and greater understanding of giraffe ecology to inform the long-term management of West African giraffe.

Hydrological Factor and Land Use/Land Cover Change Explain the Vegetation Browning in the Dosso Reserve, Niger

“…Recent studies have highlighted significant land use/land cover changes and vegetation browning in the Sahel region of West Africa [14,17,18], strongly linked to human activities, resulting in extensive loss and fragmentation of protected areas and surrounding habitats [19,20]. These changes pose a severe threat to rare wildlife and plants dependent on these protected areas for survival [21][22][23]. With the continuous population growth in the Sahel-Sudan region, the trend of natural habitat transformation is likely to increase.…”