The Bambidie Gorilla Project (BGP), founded in 2008, aims to preserve a population of western lowland go­ril­las, between the villages of Lastour­ville and Okondja, in eastern Gabon. This area is in the middle of a for­estry concession operated by the Com­pagnie Equatoriale des Bois (CEB - Equatorial Forest Company), one of the leading companies in the Gabonese forestry sector. The area contains a varied and abundant fauna, including large mammals such as gorillas, forest elephants and chimpanzees. These species are, however, facing the usual threats that arise both inside and outside of Africa: habitat destruction and fragmentation, poaching for bushmeat, and the illegal trade in wildlife.

In order to safeguard the long-term future of the gorillas in the concession, the BGP has cooperated with the CEB to establish several objectives, specifically:

• identification of the gorillas’ preferred ranges and feeding sites, so as to protect them from any future forestry activity
• education of the local communities to reduce poaching
• initiation of an ecotourism activity to generate alternative income for the local population and to encourage them to conserve the environment

The Concession

The concession extends over an area of 600,000 ha and produces approximately 220,000 m³ of round wood per year, mostly Okoumé, re­nowned for its light weight and the ease with which it can be used. The main Bambidie camp coordinates ex­ploitation activities (i.e. tree felling) and transformation activities (sawmills and kilns). It employs 450 workers, but taking into account their families the number of people at the site reaches about 2,000.

In 2007, the Swiss company Precious Wood became the main shareholder of CEB. In 2008, the concession obtained FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification, which certifies the sustainable exploitation of forest resources in accordance with very strict environmental, social and economic rules. This system allows the forest to regenerate, thanks to a regular rotation of timber coupes (selective logging system), and requires the harvesting company to implement activities that support the development of the local communities and the conservation of the environment.

CEB prefers to get involved particularly in the provision of drinking water and electricity, the construction of health centres and schools, the battle against pollution, the creation of a tree nursery for reforestation, the conservation of riverine zones and the sensitization of populations to best practices that help to protect nature on a daily basis. In order to conserve the fauna, the concession controls the forest access roads, and prohibits commercial hunting and the hunting of protected species. In addition, the concession supplies people with animal protein in order to limit the need for bushmeat.

However, even with the award of the FSC label and the application of a rigorous environmental management system by CEB which makes sure its harvesting procedures follow good practice, and the concern shown by the company in conserving global ecosystems, the gorillas still face several threats:

• In spite of CEB’s efforts to monitor the forest access routes in order to prevent illegal timber extraction and the hunting of protected species, poachers’ camps are regularly found in the forest.
• The concession workers are frightened of the gorillas and do not know how to react when they run into them unexpectedly, which can lead to accidents.
• Many gorillas show physical malformations and skin depigmentation, which may indicate a health problem.

The Role of the Bambidie Gorilla Project

The activities of the Bambidie Gorilla Project take place in the centre of the concession, which contains many gorillas (documented by routine ob­servations carried out in the forest and a 2008 survey by the primatologist Alexandre B. Pujol of Barcelona Uni­versity). Populations of great apes frequently occur outside of national parks and reserves. An evaluation of their capacity to adapt to constraints linked to forest exploitation will permit us to develop conservation plans which are adapted to this particular situation and to determine whether the conservation of the fauna is compatible with reasonable and sustainable forest exploitation.