The First High Resolution Maps of

Chimpanzee Habitat Health in Africa

L. Pintea1, S. Jantz2, J.R. Nackoney2, M.C. Hansen2
1the

Jane Goodall Institute, Vienna, VA, USA; 2Department of Geographical

Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.

Overview
Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), is listed as
endangered since 1996 (IUCN Red List)
Habitat destruction and degradation is
one of the main threats
A new Decision Support System (DSS) to
annually monitor and forecast chimpanzee
habitat health in Africa is proposed.
The DSS uses a combination of species
modeling, 30-meter Landsat satellite
imagery, and crowd-sourced field data to
systematically monitor habitats at scales
locally relevant and consistent across the
entire chimpanzee range.

Deforestation 2000-2013 (red)

Developing a Decision Support System (DSS)

The Jane Goodall Institute's (JGI) 30-year

mission focus is to protect 85% of
chimpanzees and their habitats in Africa.
In order to achieve that goal JGI and
partners are using Open Standards (OS) for
the practice of conservation.
From the DSS, JGI and partners will be able
to have near real-time access to consistent
range-wide information describing current
threats and status of chimpanzee habitats
and be able to develop and implement
conservation strategies and measure
conservation success according to Open
Standards .

Geographic scope

Chimpanzee habitat health DSS covers geographic ranges of all four

sub-species of chimpanzees. The feasibility of DSS was assessed in
sub-regions (shown in red) that capture a gradient of the habitat
types, ranging from the humid tropical forests of Eastern DRC to the
dry savanna woodlands of western Tanzania.

Habitat suitability modeling

Chimpanzee habitat suitability was

modeled for the time periods 2000-2004
and 2005-2010.
Models were run using the randomForests
software package and used a combination
of static and dynamic variables .

Static variables

Dynamic variables

* Indicates important variables for

both time periods

* Indicates important variables for

both time periods

Elevation*

Canopy height

Slope

Forest edge density*

Proximity to steep slopes*

Percent bare ground

Proximity to water bodies

Percent canopy cover*

Proportion forest loss*
Normalized ratio Landsat bands 4,3
Normalized ratio Landsat bands 4,5
Normalized ratio Landsat bands 4,7

Regional Scale

Village Scale

Cloud computing enable 30 meter Landsat satellite data to

provide a synoptic view of chimpanzee habitats at finer spatial
and temporal resolutions, that are locally relevant and consistent
across the entire chimpanzee range.

Crowd-sourced information
The DSS is enhanced by the field data
collected by the local communities,
rangers and other citizens using mobile
smartphones and tablets.
The crowd-sourced data is used to
substantially increase the amount of
data available for the development
and validation of species distribution,
land cover change and habitat health
models.
JGI crowd-sourcing platform uses
Android mobile devices and Open Data
Kit (ODK), a free and open source app.
To learn more see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNXv8EEs0P8

An inspiring solution?
Innovative and effective

Chimpanzee habitat health DSS leverages the latest advances in remote sensing, ecological modeling,
cloud computing and citizen science to map and monitor chimpanzee habitats at unprecedented spatial
and temporal scales while focusing on converting big data into information that can be used by the
conservation decision-makers.
Evidence of implementation and impact

Chimpanzee suitability and habitat change layers derived from 2000-2013 Landsat satellite imagery have
been already used to support conservation decisions in Tanzania, Uganda, DRC and Congo. The DSS is in its
final stages of the feasibility test. It is expected to be fully operational in 2-3 years.
Applied elsewhere or more broadly

Since the chimpanzee is not only an important keystone species but also an excellent flagship and
umbrella species, an annual chimpanzee habitat health index would support conservation goals of other
species within its large 2.5 million sq km range and could be one of the important indicators of overall
ecosystem health of tropical forest systems in Africa.

What makes it work?

Components that lead to success

Integrating innovative remote sensing and species modeling approaches with citizen
science data;
Using Open Standards for the practice of conservation as the decision making
framework to plan, implement and measure success of conservation strategies and
actions.
Partnerships with IUCN/SSC/Primate Specialist Group and Great Apes Survival
Partnership (GRASP)

Enabling factors

Advances in cloud computing , remote sensing science, and mobile mapping

technologies.
Funding support from NASA and other donors that focus on developing operational
decision support systems that convert big data into information useful for conservation
decisions.