Protecting an island of biodiversity

All hunting is banned in Bioko Island's two proteted areas, but poaching continues to threaten monkey and sea turtle population. Bioko is about 43 miles long and 20 miles wide.

Few places on Earth have the rich biological diversity that exists on Equatorial Guinea’s Bioko Island in West Africa.

The world’s highest concentration of endangered primates, including seven species of monkeys, populates Bioko’s virgin rain forest and mountain terrain. Four species of endangered marine turtles nest on the 20-mile-wide island’s southern shore. Nearly 200 species of birds fly among the three volcanic peaks, the tallest of which reaches a height of some 9,800 feet. And 50 unique plant species thrive on the island, along with tiny forest antelope, rare frogs and exotic butterflies.

Help through education and research
Bioko Island is truly a biological paradise, and working to keep it that way is the Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program (BBPP).

Formed in 1998 with financial support from Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc. (MEGI), Equatorial Guinea’s largest oil producer, BBPP is an academic partnership involving Drexel University in Philadelphia and the National University of Equatorial Guinea (Universidad Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial or UNGE).

“Our mission is to conserve Bioko’s biodiversity through the education of local communities and scientific research,” says Dr. Gail Hearn, Drexel professor of biology and director of BBPP. “We are especially concerned about its primates and nesting sea turtles, whose populations face significant threats from poachers and commercial hunters.”

Wayne Clark, MEGI president and ExxonMobil lead country manager, adds that the extent of the biodiversity on such a small island is unique.

“There are few places in the world where we have the potential to help make such an important difference in preserving rare and endangered plants and wildlife,” says Clark. “As the project’s primary financial supporter, we are extremely proud to be a part of it.”

BBPP is pursuing its conservation efforts through the development of economically self-sustaining programs in education and research as well as direct conservation.

“To be self-sustaining, it is important that we find opportunities for the residents of Bioko to take greater ownership in protecting Bioko’s biodiversity,” says Hearn. “Among the ways we are doing this is by linking conservation with higher education and creating projects that produce revenue for local people.”

For example, BBPP, with ExxonMobil funding, sponsors educational programs that bring students, faculty and scientists from around the world to Equatorial Guinea to teach, learn and investigate directly with UNGE students and faculty.

“In particular, our Undergraduate Study Abroad program based on Bioko Island has enabled a close collaboration between faculty and students from UNGE and U.S. universities that has helped document the island’s biodiversity and provided a basis for its protection,” says Hearn.

While the U.S. Study Abroad students are in Equatorial Guinea, MEGI employees volunteer to help ease their transition to studying in a country most have never visited before.

“Our employees see that the students’ experience is as positive as possible,” says Mary Johnson, wife of MEGI Human Resources Manager Pete Johnson and the company’s program contact. “Pete and I host them for dinners every Sunday night, provide transportation, care for them when they are sick, and basically serve as their designated ‘parents’ while they are away from home.”

BBPP Director Gail Hearn reviews wildlife census data with students as part of the annual expedition to Bioko's Gran Caldera Scientific Reserve.

A key victory
Hearn notes that BBPP reports, based on research by UNGE faculty and presented to the government of Equatorial Guinea, were instrumental in drawing attention to the rapidly declining monkey populations. In 2007, the government banned the hunting of endangered species on Bioko Island. It also designated two areas representing more than 40 percent of the island to be protected from all hunting.

“The process that led to this ban, the product of ExxonMobil Foundation and Mobil Equatorial Guinea funding of the BBPP/UNGE partnership, serves as a model for effective university-level scholarship and its application to national problems,” says Hearn.

 Hearn adds that this educational collaboration has also had a “capacity-building” impact at the local university.

“We’ve not only seen infrastructure upgrades such as new classrooms and research equipment and improved telecommunications. There has also been an improved understanding of global academic standards and expectations. Over the long term, this will help bolster UNGE’s ability to become an international center for biodiversity conservation, research and education, which will further aid efforts to protect the island.”

The Moka Wildlife Center
In conjunction with its support for research and education, BBPP opened its first biological field station, the Moka Wildlife Center, in 2006.

Built with ExxonMobil Foundation funds, the center is strategically located in a mountainous virgin rain forest adjacent to the Gran Caldera Scientific Reserve and Southern Highlands, where the primate population is among the densest in the world.

The center serves as both a field laboratory for teaching undergraduate students and a base for visiting scientists from around the world to conduct research. It also houses meteorological records covering temperatures and rainfall and treephenology data tracking fruiting, flowering, leaf loss and budding.

To date, the center has hosted more than 550 visitors — about half from Equatorial Guinea and the rest from some 35 countries.

Center activity has not been limited to scientific research.

Education programs have been conducted for Equatoguineans, including weekly classes for more than 40 children from the nearby villages.

“The more the local population, especially generations of Equatoguinean children, understands what a marvelous and unique resource they have, the easier it will be to stop the relentless hunting of primates on the island,” says Jennifer Seale. While her husband, Jim Seale, was ExxonMobil lead country manager before they moved to Angola, Seale worked closely with the BBPP staff and coordinated logistical support for its field research and university programs.

Wildlife patrols and census takers
In addition, the center serves as a training base for local residents with whom BBPP has contracted to serve on wildlife patrols. The patrols survey trails throughout the Southern Highlands and Gran Caldera Scientific Reserve for about two weeks each month. They also patrol beaches during sea turtle nesting season, which runs from October through March. Besides helping to deter poaching, patrol participants collect wildlife census data that help BBPP researchers monitor the number and location of Bioko’s endangered species.

Another source of census data is BBPP’s annual three-week expedition to the remote and rarely visited Gran Caldera de Luba to document populations of rare monkeys and sea turtles. The census is conducted in January because much of the area is accessible only during the dry season from December through February. Typically, some 50 graduate and undergraduate students and faculty from the United States and UNGE participate, along with BBPP staff and scientists.

“We document monkey and sea turtle population levels to determine the impact of both hunting and natural conditions such as drought and severe storms on their numbers,” says Hearn. “The data are compared with results from previous expeditions dating back to 1990 and then shared with the government of Equatorial Guinea.”

In 2008, National Geographic magazine, with support from MEGI, joined the annual expedition and detailed Bioko Island’s biodiversity and the BBPP program in its August 2008 issue.

Conservation supports local jobs
Hearn says that in addition to gathering invaluable information needed to protect the island’s threatened wildlife, the poaching patrols and expeditions provide economic support for local residents.

“The project has hired more than 50 Equatoguineans to serve on the patrols and provided job training that they can continue to apply in supporting conservation efforts. Our annual expeditions require another 50 or more people to serve as cooks, guides, trail cutters and porters. These employment opportunities have provided alternatives to hunting endangered wildlife and helped establish the concept that conservation can be immediately profitable.”

Hearn hopes that Bioko Island will eventually become one of the world’s premier biodiversity research centers and that one of the planet’s most remarkable natural treasures will be preserved to capture the wonder of future generations. “Although poaching continues to be a major problem, BBPP, in partnership with UNGE and with the support of ExxonMobil and others, is working hard to make that vision a reality.”

How you can help
To support the research, conservation and education efforts of the Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program may contact:

Dr. Gail Hearn
Drexel University
3141 Chestnut St. 5-118
Philadelphia, Pa 19104
215-895-1476
gwh26@drexel.edu