Country Area - 267,670 km²
Range Area - 213,373 km² (80%)
Protected Range - 18%
Information Quality Index (IQI) - 0.09
CITES Appendix - I
Listing Year - 1990
Gabon is a relatively stable country with a low human population concentrated in the cities. Over 80% of the country is forested, with Gabon’s forests accounting for 12% of the total African tropical moist forest area (Verheggen et al., 2012). There are small areas of savanna in the Batéké Plateau in the south-east and behind the coastal strip. All elephants found in Gabon are forest elephants including those found in the savanna patches (Roca et al., 2015).
Until recently much of the forest was relatively inaccessible and Gabon has been a stronghold for forest elephants, holding about half of Africa’s forest elephants (Maisels & Strindberg, 2012). In 2002, Gabon created a network of 13 national parks, which cover about 11% of the country. Until recently levels of poaching were far lower than in neighbouring range states, but this has changed in recent years as road access has improved and ivory prices increased, and poaching is now seen as a serious threat.
In recent analyses of seizure data in ETIS, prepared for CITES, Gabon has been identified as a country with a worrying involvement in illegal ivory trade (CITES Secretariat, 2012; Milliken et al., 2013, 2016). Gabon was requested by the CITES Standing Committee, at its 65th meeting, to prepare a National Ivory Action Plan. Gabon submitted this to CITES in 2014 (CITES, n.d.-a). In June 2012, Gabon destroyed 4.8 tonnes of ivory from its national stockpile (Jones, 2012).
In 2015, as part of the Elephant Protection Initiative, Gabon developed a draft national strategy for elephant management (Government of Gabon, 2015), which is still under review. The Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux (ANPN) announced the creation, by presidential order, of a 240-strong special forces unit within ANPN to operate as a rapid reaction unit anywhere in Gabon (Presidential Press Service, 2016).
The estimated number of elephants in areas surveyed in the last ten years in Gabon is 7,058 ± 2,303 at the time of the last survey for each area. There may be an additional 59,057 to 67,094 elephants in areas not systematically surveyed. These guesses likely represent a minimum number, and actual numbers could be higher than those reported. Together, this estimate and guess apply to 213,373 km², which is 100% of the estimated known and possible elephant range.
Elephants are believed to occur throughout much of Gabon, with the exception of a number of areas with high human population densities, but only 20% of Gabon has been surveyed. For this reason an estimate from a spatial model has been used for the remaining area (Maisels, Strindberg et al., 2013b).
The estimated number of elephants through systematic surveys has increased by 4,300, largely because of an increased number from a repeat survey of Lopé National Park. Guesses on the other hand have decreased by 10,000-20,000, partly because of the reduced numbers recorded from Minkébé NP.
A dung count of Minkébé NP and its neighbouring buffer zone in the north-east of the country in 2013 gave an estimate of 6,875 (3,677-12,852) (ANPN, 2013). This replaces an estimate of 21,070 ± 7,942 from 2004 (Blake, 2005). The more recent survey was less intense but indicated a dramatic decline in both numbers and range, with elephants now almost totally confined to the southern and eastern borders of the park. The 2013 survey included areas outside the park but a direct comparison of areas surveyed in 2004 and 2013 suggests that 60-80% of the population has been lost (ANPN, 2013). This increase in poaching was associated with the presence of over 6,000 gold miners in the park and buffer zone from about 2008 onwards until they were moved out in 2011 by ANPN and the Gabonese military (ANPN, 2013).
Djouah Bélinga is south-east of Minkébé NP on the Republic of Congo border. The estimate of 4,035 from 2002 (Lahm & Barnes, pers. comm., 2006) has been degraded to a guess.
A dung count of Mwagna National Park and its proposed extension to the north-west in 2012 (Maisels & Akou, 2012) gave an estimate of 1,680 (1,254 to 2,251) elephants for the whole area, of which 81% were in the park. This replaces a 2004 guess of 2,483 (Lahm & Barnes, pers. comm., 2006). A 2004 guess of 151 elephants is available for the Mwagna buffer area (Maisels & Strindberg, 2012).
The Plateaux Batéké National Park in the extreme south-east of the country is largely composed of savanna with small areas of forest. A reconnaissance dung count in 2006 (which was not reported in the AESR 2007) gave a guess of 301 elephants (Maisels & Strindberg, 2012). However 337 elephants have been individually identified in in clearings to the north-west of the park (Douckaga, 2014) of which 17 were recognisable from the Batéké population just across the border with Congo.
A dung count of Ivindo NP and its southern buffer zone in 2009 gave an estimate of 3,489 ± 732 elephants (Maisels et al., 2010) of which 82% were in the park. This replaced an estimate of 1,216 (730-2,000) (Maisels, pers. comm., 2006). As the area surveyed in 2009 was 11% larger than the 2005 area, this was recorded as a different area.
A dung count was carried out in Lopé NP, in the centre of Gabon, in 2009. This gave an estimate of 4,142 (2,508-6,842) (Bezangoye & Maisels, 2010), replacing an estimate of 2,350 (1,385 to 4,200) from a similar survey in 2005 (Maisels, pers. comm., 2006). A logging company started operations on the western border of the park after the end of the 2006 survey, which may have caused elephants to seek refuge in the park (Bezangoye & Maisels, 2010).
A reconnaissance survey of the neighbouring Waka National Park was carried out in 2006, giving a new guess of 690 (Maisels & Strindberg, 2012). The intervening Lopé-Waka corridor was surveyed using line transects and dung counts in 2008 giving an estimate of 1,343 ± 778 (Maisels et al., 2008). There were no previous estimates for these sites.
The Monts Birougou National Park was not marked as elephant range in the AESR 2007 and this has been changed to known range. A dung count was carried out in 2007 which gave an estimate of 216 (168-554) elephants (Aba’a & Bezangoye, 2007) and this is recorded as a new population.
A reconnaissance survey of the Monts de Cristal area, along the border with Equatorial Guinea, in 2006 gave an estimate of 2,416 elephants (Aba’a, 2006; Maisels & Strindberg, 2012). This replaces an estimate from a smaller area of 1,396 from 2001 (Lahm & Barnes, pers. comm., 2006).
Several new dung counts have been carried out of elephant populations along the Gabon coast. However, Pongara NP in the north was not surveyed and an estimate of 344 ± 152 (Latour, 2006) has been retained from the AESR 2007.
Wonga-Wongue Presidential Reserve was surveyed in 2011 for the first time, giving an estimate of 1,039 (601-1,797) (new analysis of the raw data by Maisels: Motsaba & Aba’a, 2012). Some of these elephants visit savanna areas in the reserve and monthly aerial total counts are conducted. Just over 1,000 elephants were seen in a single flight in 2015 and it is thought that there may be 2,000-3,000 elephants (Fay, pers. comm., 2016). A reconnaissance survey was carried out of the previously unsurveyed Evaro area in the swamps of the Ogooue Delta in 2006, but this was not included in the AESR 2007. This gave a guess of 469 (Maisels & Strindberg, 2012).
Several surveys have been carried out of different parts of the Gamba Forest Complex. A dung count was carried out in Loango NP in 2007, resulting in a guess of 290 elephants (Maisels, pers. comm., 2016e). A transect survey of the Kivoro logging concession was carried out in 2008 (Blake et al., 2012) which gave an estimate of 900 elephants (231-1,617). There was a previous estimate of 11,205 ± 969 from 1999 (Thibault et al., 2001) for the entire area but this is not comparable because a larger area was covered and a different decay rate was used.
A survey of the Mayombe area, further south along the coast, gave a new estimate of 299 elephants (299-634) (Aba’a et al., 2011) and there was a new guess from a reconnaissance survey for Mayumba NP of 80 (Maisels & Strindberg, 2012).
Finally, a small part of the Moukalaba-Doudou NP and a part of the adjacent Sette Cama Reserve was surveyed in 2011 giving an estimate of 236 (183-304) (Ngoran, pers. comm., 2014).
Using the model of Maisels, Strindberg, et al. (2013b) and excluding the sites for which specific estimates are available, the remaining unsurveyed suitable forest habitat is predicted to contain 32,378 elephants.