Reconciling community development needs and great apes conservation: The twin-track approach

Great apes throughout West and Central Africa - gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos - are being hunted for food and face the rapid loss of their habitat. Cameroon harbours two of the most threatened African great apes, both keystone species in the montane forest ecosystems of the border region of Nigeria and Cameroon. This article describes the main goal of the Western Cameroon Great Apes program: to protect and conserve the Cross River gorilla and Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees across the Lebialem Highlands forest area in western Cameroon through research and development of participatory biodiversity management strategies.