BBPP has seven unarmed wildlife patrol teams in the Gran Caldera and Southern Highlands Scientific Reserve totalling 47 people. They patrol four trails in the Gran Caldera, three trails along the southern beaches and, less frequently, additional trails near Ureka village, along the southwestern coast or leading into the Gran Caldera. Two of our teams have GPS Cybertracker devices that allow them to record data on the exact positions of primate groups.
Monkey encounter rates 1990-2006.
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These patrols are the only protection for wildlife on Bioko Island. Without this protection, hunters rapidly entered these remote areas and monkey and sea turtle populations suffer.
In 2004, BBPP lost funding for these patrols, which had been in effect continuously since 1998. Although we were able to restore funding in 2005, the graph at left shows a clear reduction in encounter rates for monkeys during that time period. We also observed other signs of hunting such as used shotgun shells strewn about census trails.
BBPP's wildlife patrols are a stop-gap measure to deter hunting until such a time that the Equatoguinean government institutes meaningful controls to curtail the commercial bushmeat trade.
All members of BBPP's patrol teams come from the Bubi tribe, many from the village of Ureka, the only human settlement in the Gran Caldera and Southern Highlands Scientific Reserve.
In addition to deterring hunting, the patrols collect census data on primates and sea turtles. BBPP's personnel at the University Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial (UNGE) in Malabo analyze their data and transmit it to the United States via BBPP's highspeed Internet connection at UNGE, the only such connection at UNGE. BBPP's personnel at UNGE also bear responsibility for payroll management, banking supervision and data entry and analysis.
