Sandra Goded
This project focuses on containing the imminent extinction of West African vultures by halting the current population declines. We frantically sound the alarm about the need for a comprehensive medium to long-term research and conservation effort in Ghana, that includes conservation actions engaging local community education, research and ethnobiology study of three critically endangered vulture species, namely Hooded Vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus), White-headed Vulture (Trigonoceps occipitalis) and African White-backed Vulture (Gyps africanus) in Mole National Park, the largest protected area of the country where none or very little previous research and conservation action focused on critically endangered vultures have been previously done.
White-headed vulture juvenile in Mole National Park. © Grzegorz Walczak.
To address the challenges and knowledge gaps concerning the conservation status of vultures in Ghana, which may hold the last known populations of these critically endangered vulture species in West Africa, we propose that urgent research and conservation action be carried out to prevent population extirpations. This will contribute to the wider proposed actions aimed at containing the imminent extinction of African vultures. We will work collaboratively with partners and local communities to take immediate conservation action for vultures, including the education of local people, especially, school children and women about the diversity and importance of vultures.
The project will provide crucial information about the three critically endangered vulture species, their trends and breeding ecology in a very understudied region of Africa, namely West Africa. Through this project, enough data is generated that could inform the development of an international vulture multispecies action plan alongside awareness creation and conservation education.
Header: White-backed vulture chick in its nest in Mole National Park. © Grzegorz Walczak.