South Sudan DiversityCam

South Sudan… extraordinarily biodiverse

The vast nation of South Sudan is characterized primarily by moist savanna and montane forests, with over 280 mammal species historically recorded. These include eastern chimpanzee and 11 other primates, both species of African elephants, multiple felids and other carnivores, and over 100 species of bat. We primarily work in the southwestern corner, a unique tropical forest belt linking the biomes of Central and East Africa. Biodiversity monitoring has been central to our program since 2012. An understanding of the basic fauna and flora of an area is important in interpreting the overall health of an ecosystem and is fundamental to all other efforts, as it drives conservation planning and reserve management.

…but plagued by conflict

Although rich in culture, biodiversity, and resources, South Sudan’s people are among the poorest in the world. Continued conflict has blocked research and conservation for decades, and both people and wildlife continue to suffer greatly from the costs of war. South Sudan is in the fourth year of its current civil war which – like its two previous civil wars – falls along ethnic lines and urban/government versus rural/opposition lines. FFI, in collaboration with Bucknell University, is one of a very small number of wildlife conservation actors continuing to operate on the ground in-country.

Conservation Importance

During the current conflict, poaching as a source of life-sustaining protein has increased as has the opportunity for illegal extraction of natural resources including logging and deforestation. The national authorities for wildlife conservation are incapacitated: funds have been cut, salaries are paid late, and there is no financial allocation for institutional operational costs. In many areas across other parts of the country, Wildlife Service personnel have returned to their military role and are fighting on different sides of the civil war. This is a complex political environment, but FFI and Bucknell are well positioned: previous relationships with government and communities have put them in a neutral position, enabling them to conduct impartial conservation activities, bringing together a variety of actors.

Study Location

Our study area in the dense tropical forests of southwestern South Sudan presents many conservation opportunities. The area’s wilderness, small human footprint, and undeveloped protected areas offer the opportunity for recovery and sustainment of both wildlife and human populations. There exists a latent knowledge of the importance of protecting these natural resources, but for decades nothing concrete had been done about it.

Aiding conservation through biodiversity surveys and community involvement

Extensive camera trapping efforts have yielded ~425,000 images, and efforts continue. Camera traps are a powerful tool both for documenting biodiversity and for estimating abundance and species distributions. They are proving critical to our studies of elephants and chimpanzees and have offered insights on species range expansions and new country records.

The South Sudan Wildlife Service is a key partner, as are nearby communities, who are trained to protect and monitor the cameras as part of a wider project that supports community-led natural resource management. The Wildlife Service and community members have come together in order to develop a model of joint ownership for wildlife conservation. Community members were trained and named Community Wildlife Ambassadors (CWAs). This has maintained collaboration and stability between the government and rural communities in the area where camera traps are deployed, enabling wildlife conservation activities to continue. CWAs support the State Wildlife Service (WLS) in the management of the reserves by conducting regular wildlife patrols and managing camera traps. Rangers are trained and gain literacy, map navigation, and technology skills. Through patrolling, reporting, and using their new navigation and GIS skills, CWAs gather valuable information about the reserve and surrounding area. This information is used to inform patrol plans and aid the monitoring and protection of wildlife. We are also expanding work into human livelihoods, recognizing that poaching and unsustainable resource use increases when people are food insecure.

Our camera trap program is now in its second year. We continue to move the cameras to different areas, and need your help identifying animals in the camera trap photos! Your identifications will help us understand biodiversity, abundance, behavior, and distributions, which will ultimately lead to better conservation planning in this extraordinary environment. Thank you for your help!