Conserving Addax in Niger

SCF implements this flagship project in partnership with the:

• Direction Générale de l'Environnement et des Eaux et Forêts (DGEEF)
• Convention on Migratory Species (CMS)
• Fonds Français pour l'Environnement Mondial (FFEM)
• Association Française des Volontaires du Progrès (AFVP)
• Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique (IRSNB) 

SCF is extremely grateful to the following organizations for their generous financial support:

• Addax Petroleum Corporation
• African Parks Conservation
• Conservation International 
• Iara Lee & George Gund Foundation
• Philadelphia Zoo
• Philadelphia Zoo Docent's Association 
• Saint Louis Zoo
• Smithsonian's National Zoo

The rarest antelope on earth

The Addax antelope (Addax nasomasculatus) is one of the rarest and most endangered species on earth. With less than 300 left in the wild, the species’ survival depends on urgent and comprehensive conservation action in its last remaining strongholds in the Sahelian nations of Niger and Chad.

In Niger, the addax’s last stronghold is around the Massif du Termit, a long, low-lying chain of rocky outcrops and plateaux situated in the south-east of the country. Straddling the interface between the Sahel and the Sahara, Termit and its environs comprise a wide variety of habitat types, ranging from open sandy ergs and eroded volcanic peaks to stony plateaux and mountain valleys. Annual rainfall is less than 100 mm annually, although the mountainous relief allows for water to concentrate in the numerous drainage channels and alluvial pans, giving rise to a surprising variety of perennial plants, trees and shrubs.

The area’s small addax population is certainly the largest remaining in the wild today. A transect-based survey of some 8,800 km² of addax habitat carried out by an SCF/SSIG/DFPP team in February 2004 returned an estimated 223 addax. In August of the same year, SOS Faune du Niger organized and conducted an aerial survey using three ultra-light aircraft. A complete count was carried out across an area of 9,300 km², returning a total of 128 addax.

Termit — a veritable Noah's Ark

Although the massif itself appears to have been little documented in the past, the greater Termit area was crossed by the early Saharan explorers, such as Denham and Clapperton, Barth, Nachtigal and Vischer. All of them were astounded at the abundance of the region’s game. In far more recent times, the late French photographer, Alain Dragesco-Joffe, documented Termit’s remarkable but already vulnerable Sahelo-Saharan biodiversity, lending support to the notion that Termit and its wildlife must be conserved as a wonderful and possibly unique example of the region’s fast dwindling wildlife resources. From many perspectives, Termit is a veritable sanctuary, harbouring over 20 species of mammal, an as yet undetermined number of reptiles, and well over 60 species of bird.

Over the past five years, a number of scientific missions and surveys, including two by SCF/SSIG, has documented the area’s wildlife but worryingly, has also pointed to its rapid decline and high degree of endangerment. Of particular concern is a whole suite of Red Data Listed species, including the Addax, the Dama Gazelle (Nanger dama), the Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), the relict and quite isolated population of Barbary Sheep (Ammotragus lervia), and a number of data deficient species, including bustards, vultures and small carnivores, such as Pale Fox (Vulpes pallida), Rüppell’s Fox (Vulpes rüeppellii) and Sand Cat (Felis margarita). Termit also harbours what may be one of the last and most fascinating populations of the desert-adapted Spurred Tortoise (Geochelone sulcata).

Local nomads report little conflict with cheetah but recognize that its numbers are falling. Likewise both Barbary sheep and dama gazelles, which are being picked off by local hunters. Like the now extinct scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah), the dama gazelle is slipping inexorably towards extirpation in the wild. New threats, too, are also apparent as hunters and falconers from the Gulf States and elsewhere extend their activities throughout North Africa. Unless seriously controlled, hunting of gazelles and bustards could rapidly lead to further significant declines or extinction of already threatened wildlife populations.

At the seminal meeting of Sahelo-Saharan range states to adopt an action plan for six species of endangered antelope convened by the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) in Djerba, 1998, Termit was identified as a top priority for conservation action. In 2002, with support from the French Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial (FFEM), the CMS drew up an ambitious programme to implement some of the action plan’s priority actions. SCF is involved directly with two of the major components in Tunisia and Niger.

In partnership with Niger’s Direction de la Faune, de la Pêche et de la Pisciculture (DFPP) and the French Association des Volontaires du Progrès (AFVP), SCF is carrying out the groundwork to put in place a legally gazetted protected area for Termit. We are also involved in baseline inventory, research, natural resource mapping and the establishment of a long-term ecological monitoring programme. We also have mandate to help Niger establish a sustainable, long-term conservation programme for Termit and raise the funds to achieve this. To find out more about these components, click on the links below.

If you wish to support this critically important project, please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.