948 S. Tudge et al.


et al., 2005); a prey community dominated by ecologically versatile, smaller mammals typically reflects such overhar- vesting. This pattern of species depletion is often observed close to human settlements, reflecting spatial patterns of human population density and hunting effort (e.g. Koerner et al., 2017; Beirne et al., 2019).Therefore, species composition can be a useful indicator of hunting sustainability (Milner- Gulland & Rowcliffe, 2007). Distance to roads can also be used as an indicator of


human activity and, in some cases, hunting pressure. In Central Africa, expansion of industrial logging has resulted in an increased number of roads to transport goods and workers (Laporte et al., 2007). Roads allow hunters to ex- ploit previously inaccessible forest areas and many studies have linked proximity to roads to increased hunting and negative impacts on mammals (e.g. Vanthomme et al., 2013; Ziegler et al., 2016). However, roads can also affect species behaviour and abundance, resulting in positive or negative associations that are species and location depen- dent and therefore hard to predict (e.g. Laurance et al., 2006; Vanthomme et al., 2013). In Cameroon, community forests weremade possiblewith


the adoption of the Forestry Law in 1994,withthe aims of reducing poverty in forest communities and protecting the environment (Egbe, 2001;Oyono et al., 2006).Within them, local people can manage forest resources subject to a simple management plan that is agreed between a community-level council and the government (Egbe, 2001; Lescuyer, 2013). Community forests occur along roads or around villages, can be up to 5,000 ha andare grantedfor aperiodof 25 years. Although most are focused on timber extraction, vil- lagers can maintain agricultural activities and hunting of un- protected species, for subsistence only, within community forests. However, the extent to which the biodiversity conser- vation and socio-economic goals of community forests are met varies. Most studies have found few, if any, benefits to the community (e.g. Ezzine-de-Blas et al., 2009; Lescuyer, 2013), with progress hindered, inter alia, bymanagement con- flicts and a lack of technical skills (e.g. Ezzine-de-Blas et al., 2009;Alemagi, 2011). Inadequate monitoring and evaluation can allow environmental degradation to continue unchecked, and little research has been conducted on animal biodiversity within community forests (Lhoest et al., 2020), hindering examination of the sustainability of hunting. Our research focuses on mammals within a community


forest that surrounds a village on the southern periphery of the Dja Biosphere Reserve in Cameroon. This 5,260 km2 Reserve is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that supports c. 109 mammal species, including the African forest ele- phant Loxodonta cyclotis, western lowland gorilla Gorilla gorilla gorilla and central African chimpanzee Pan troglo- dytes troglodytes (Kingdon, 2015; Bruce et al., 2018a). However, a recent analysis suggests that the conservation success of this Reserve is low (Gruber et al., 2018), partly


because of an increasing human population around the Reserve, where there are hundreds of small villages and a net- work of production forests, mining concessions and commu- nity forests. There are limited baseline data on the status of mammals in the Dja region, but recent surveys have provided information on the mammal community of the Reserve (Bruce et al., 2018a,c) and in three neighbouring community forests to the north-east (Lhoest et al., 2020).We conducted a camera-trap survey within a previously unsurveyed commu- nity forest to the south-east of the Reserve to provide baseline data on mammal species richness and composition.We used occupancy analysis to estimate the proportion of the survey area used by each species and to investigate how indicators of human activity influenced the distribution of species. We then used species composition and the relationship between human activity covariates and species occupancy to look for signs of overexploitation. Our findings could form the basis of wildlife monitoring within the study area and inform conservation management of wildlife within the community forest and wider Dja region.


Study area


The Dja region has a humid, equatorial climate and is char- acterized by semi-deciduous, lowland rainforest with a mean annual temperature of 23 °C and annual rainfall of 1,600mm(Lagarde, 2004). Our study area is a village within a community forest in dense rainforest between the Dja Biosphere Reserve and the Dja River, c. 4 km south-east of the Reserve (Fig. 1). It comprises 90 households that rely heavily on forest resources for subsistence. The mean human population density is 5 people/1 km2 (Center for International Earth Science Information Network, 2018) and villagers have mixed livelihoods, primarily agricultural, but many also fish, hunt and collect non-timber forest pro- ducts. The village became a community forest in 2010 with the objectives of helping the community generate income and sustainably improve their living conditions. No previ- ous research has examined hunting within the community forest, but during a scoping trip, villagers reported to us that it was relatively easy to find food by hunting and gathering. A permanent hunting camp was encountered during the survey, which is an area where residents of the village stay for a few nights when hunting or gathering further afield. Some small-scale logging took place within the community forest in 2011–2013 but there was no logging at the time of our survey. The village is relatively isolated and far from the nearest main road, although a logging road was built through the village in 2015, which during our survey carried c. 15–20 trucks per day to nearby logging concessions. The community forest has been bordered by a logging conces- sion to the south since 2013 and there are numerous others in the vicinity.


Oryx, 2022, 56(6), 947–955 © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605321000806


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