Table 5 summarizes the recommendations given in Chapter 4 and also provides ratings of the relative priority of the further action recommended on the different projects. Projects are categorized as A–D based on the following criteria:
A: Projects that were recommended in the first plan, but on which little or no progress has been made, and where there is no serious political or other obstacle to undertaking the project.
B: Reserve establishment or survey projects recommended in the first plan, where surveys have now been conducted and potential reserve sites identified, but where no effective protected area has yet been established.
C: Continuing management and/or research projects at key sites listed in the first plan where some conservation progress has been made.
D: Projects recommended in the first plan that never commenced, or have been abandoned or interrupted because of warfare or political factors.
In Table 5, project priorities are rated from Medium to Very High, as follows:
* Medium priority:
Project area is home to one or more taxa of conservation concern and a conservation program already exists that provides these taxa with some degree of protection.
** High priority:
Project area is home to one or two taxa of conservation concern and the area has little or no protection.
Adult female Campbell's guenon (Cercopithecus campbelli) in the Taï Forest, Ivory Coast.
Scott McGraw
*** Very high priority:
Project area is home to three or more taxa of conservation concern and has little or no protection; or, project area is the only known habitat of one or more endangered taxa.
(**)/(***):
Project area is home to 1–2/>2 taxa of concern but warfare or other political factors make conservation efforts very difficult or impossible at this time.
Note:“Taxa of conservation concern” are species with a total rating of 4 or more in Table 3, or any subspecies listed in Table 4.
Table 5 Summary of Recommendations and Priorities Arising from Project Review
All endangered or vulnerable African primate species are included in one of the recommended projects for future action arising from projects listed in the first Action Plan and reviewed in Chapter 4. But three distinct primate populations of considerable concern (rating 4 or greater in Table 4) are not included in these projects, and efforts should be made to learn more about their status and to take any necessary measures to improve their protection. These populations are:
Cercopithecus albogularis zammaranoi of southern Somalia.
The red-bellied form of Cercopithecus erythrogaster, which has been found to survive in a remnant of dry forest, the Lama forest of Benin.
Procolobus badius epieni in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.
In addition, the several newly-described galago forms from Malawi and Tanzania, some of which appear to be new species, need to be further studied and their status evaluated. Some may require conservation attention.
The large number of highly localized and threatened populations of red colobus monkeys that have appeared in this analysis suggests the need for a Red Colobus Conservation Action Plan, along the lines of the recently-published Action Plan for Pan paniscus (Thompson-Handler et al. 1995). Several kinds of red colobus are among the most endangered of all African primates. Some distinct forms of red colobus occur in no formal wildlife conservation area, and some that are found in legally-protected areas in fact have very weak protection. Because the genetic distinctiveness and evolutionary relationships of the different red colobus populations are very poorly understood, basic research on these issues should be a component of any integrated conservation program. Because red colobus do not do well in captivity, a conservation plan must focus on in situ actions. Such a plan, designed to improve the survival prospects of each threatened form and of the diversity of red colobus as a whole, would also lead to the better protection of many other threatened African primates that occur sympatrically with red colobus.
The number of projects recommended in the original plan that have been disrupted by civil war and insecurity demonstrates that, in Africa especially, conservation cannot be viewed outside the context of political and economic conditions. While this plan gives some specific recommendations for future action, it must be kept in mind that the prospects for the long-term success of many conservation projects are poor unless better government and stronger indigenous institutions take hold in more African countries, unless civil wars subside, and unless economic circumstances and educational opportunities improve. Improving governance in Africa is, of course, outside the scope of the Primate Specialist Group, but where primatologists have input to conservation planning it is important that they stress the significance of the political context of conservation.
This plan has laid emphasis on specific actions at particular sites, but research projects that address widespread conservation problems can also make very important contributions. For instance, more research is needed on the impact which human land-use practices, such as hunting, logging and shifting cultivation, have on primates and other wildlife. It is also becoming increasingly important that we design research to examine the effectiveness of conservation projects themselves, analyzing the causes of successes and failures, and assessing the extent to which lessons learned at one site can be generalized to others.