Cross River, Okomu National Parks added to CITES elephant monitoring network

Cross River National Park and Okomu National Park in Nigeria have been added to the Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) Programme of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

In a statement published on its website , CITES said the designation brings the number of MIKE sites across Africa to 74.

The organisation said the network has expanded significantly from its original 39 sites in 2001, describing the latest additions as a major step towards strengthening Africa’s capacity for systematic elephant monitoring.

With financial support from the European Union, CITES said the expansion reflects the commitment of elephant range states to evidence-based conservation.

The five newly designated sites are Digya National Park and Bia National Park in Ghana; Cross River National Park and Okomu National Park in Nigeria; and Gambella National Park in Ethiopia.

CITES described Digya National Park, located along the shores of Lake Volta in Ghana’s forest-savanna transition zone, as one of the country’s largest protected areas.

Bia National Park, which forms part of the Bia Biosphere Reserve recognised under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme, borders Côte d’Ivoire and plays an important role in cross-border conservation.

“In Nigeria, Cross River National Park has joined the network, a major protected area in the southeast dominated by moist tropical rainforest and bordering Cameroon, placing it within a wider transboundary conservation landscape. Also added is Okomu National Park, in southwestern Nigeria, which protects the last remaining fragment of lowland rainforest within the wider Okomu Forest Reserve,” CITES said.

The organisation said the addition of the sites would strengthen the MIKE Programme’s ability to track poaching trends and guide conservation action in areas where it is most urgently needed.

Declining elephant populations in Nigeria

The designation of the two Nigerian parks comes amid persistent threats to the country’s declining elephant population.

An extensive PREMIUM TIMES investigation published last year revealed how human-elephant conflict is threatening Nigeria’s remaining wild elephants.

Nigeria is among the few African countries with both forest and savanna elephant populations, scientifically known as Loxodonta cyclotis and Loxodonta africana, respectively.

It is estimated that about 90 per cent of Nigeria’s elephants are found in or near protected areas, including national parks and game reserves, while about 10 per cent live outside protected areas.

Human-elephant conflict has emerged as a major threat to the declining elephant population across Nigeria’s ecological zones.

The problem is compounded by illegal logging, agricultural expansion and extreme weather events, among other factors.

According to the Natural Resources Conservation Council (NARESCON), major threats to Nigeria’s elephants include poaching and the illegal ivory trade, habitat loss and fragmentation, livestock grazing, human-elephant conflict, and legal and institutional challenges.

Data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) show that Nigeria’s elephant population has declined over the past three decades from an estimated 1,200–1,500 to about 300–400.

Of the remaining population, about 200–300 are estimated to be forest elephants, while roughly 100 are savanna elephants.

The IUCN classifies the African forest elephant as critically endangered and the African savanna elephant as endangered.

In August 2024, the Federal Government, with support from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Elephant Protection Initiative, adopted a 10-year plan for protecting Nigeria’s remaining elephants.

The plan, seen by PREMIUM TIMES, outlines the status of the country’s elephant population and provides a framework for the long-term conservation of the species across Nigeria.

Cross River National Park is one of the largest remaining forest blocks in the Guinean Forest biodiversity hotspot.

The park comprises the Oban and Okwangwo divisions, both of which harbour threatened and vulnerable wildlife species, including chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), Cross River gorillas (Gorilla gorilla diehli), white-bellied pangolins (Phataginus tricuspis) and forest elephants.

The park’s location along Nigeria’s border with Cameroon also gives it importance within a wider transboundary conservation landscape. Okomu National Park is a 200-square-kilometer protected lowland rainforest located in the Ovia South-West Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria.

Strengthening conservation efforts

CITES said the MIKE Programme has, for more than two decades, provided governments with tools to understand changes in elephant populations and develop targeted conservation responses.

It said the expansion of the network represents both the programme’s growth and the continued collaboration among participating countries.

CITES Secretary-General, Ivonne Higuero, said the expanded network would strengthen efforts to monitor and respond to elephant killings.

“CITES Parties have remained committed to evidence-based elephant conservation, and this expansion of the CITES MIKE network strengthens our collective ability to not only respond to illegal killing through reliable, continent-wide monitoring, but also advance our goals for people and wildlife within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the CITES Strategic Vision 2021-2030,” she said.

CITES said one of the significant aspects of the expansion is its focus on West Africa.

According to the IUCN African Elephant Database, West Africa holds less than three per cent of Africa’s total elephant population and accounts for less than five per cent of the continent’s elephant range.

The organisation said the region’s remaining elephant populations survive in highly fragmented groups, making systematic monitoring particularly important.

The expansion also includes Gambella National Park in Ethiopia, which CITES said hosts the country’s largest elephant population and forms part of a major transboundary wildlife landscape extending into South Sudan.

According to CITES, the new sites will improve the geographic coverage and completeness of data on the threats facing elephant populations across Africa.

It said the expansion also contributes to the implementation of CITES Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev. CoP20), which calls for the selection of monitoring sites and, where appropriate, expansion of the MIKE network to the maximum extent possible.

What happens next?

CITES said the next phase would involve onboarding the newly designated sites into the MIKE system.

Working with MIKE National Focal Points, the CITES MIKE team will conduct induction sessions and practical training for rangers and site focal points.

The training will ensure that elephant mortality is recorded and reported consistently under MIKE protocols, including deaths from all causes and not only illegal killing.

CITES said the addition of each site strengthens a continent-wide system of data collection, collaboration and conservation action.

“The MIKE Programme welcomes the commitment of Ethiopia, Ghana and Nigeria to regular data submission and continued collaboration under CITES,” the organisation said.

It added that other countries had expressed interest in nominating sites and that the MIKE Programme was engaging with them to support further expansion of the network.

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About CITES

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was signed on 3 March 1973 and entered into force on 1 July 1975.

With 185 Parties—184 countries and the European Union—CITES regulates international trade in more than 41,000 species of wild animals and plants.

The convention seeks to ensure that international wildlife trade is legal, sustainable and traceable through scientific assessment, legal compliance and enforcement.

CITES said its work supports the CITES Strategic Vision 2021–2030, the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Nigeria signed CITES in 1974 and ratified the convention in 1975.

As a Party to the convention, Nigeria is required to implement relevant provisions of CITES, including measures to protect endangered species and combat the illegal trafficking of protected animals and their body parts.