The White-crested Helmetshrike is one of 240 bird species documented in a new study of Fazao-Malfakassa National Park, Togo. Photo by Sylvain Uriot.
Birds have long served as indicators of ecological health, and in the case of Fazao-Malfakassa National Park in Togo, they are sending a clear alarm. This protected area is facing growing pressure as more people move into the area and encroach on the park. These changes led a group of scientists to examine how well the park is doing by studying the birds that live there. Fazao-Malfakassa is the last large natural area in Togo, but it has not been studied in depth, even though it provides critical natural resources and ecosystem services. As human activities increase in the area, including poaching, tree cutting, and clearing land to farm, the researchers wanted to assess the conservation status of wildlife in the park and the effectiveness of current park management.
A research team at the International Bird Conservation Partnership (IBCP), a non-governmental organization focused on protecting birds and their habitats, set out to document birds in the park and assess threats to the park from human activities. The team shared their findings in Land, a peer-reviewed scientific journal that features research in environmental science. Their project, carried out over multiple years, recorded a high diversity of bird species in the park, including the first record of Emin’s Shrike in Togo, the first sighting of the Great Blue Turaco since 1990, and first observations of the Abyssinian Ground-Hornbill since 2019.
In total, the research team documented 240 bird species, including 34 species new to the park. Many of these birds are now found only in Fazao-Malfakassa National Park in Togo, showing just how important the park is. At the same time, however, the team failed to find evidence of 91 bird species previously documented in the park, including the Hooded Vulture, White-backed Vulture, and Yellow-casqued Hornbill, all of which are considered at risk of global extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In many cases, these “missing” species survived only in this park in Togo, and their disappearance from the park means their extirpation from Togo, which is deeply concerning.
Dr. Nico Arcilla, senior author of the publication, explained, “We were unable to document dozens of bird species previously reported for the park during our surveys, suggesting a steep decline in bird diversity.” She continued, “The declines and extirpations of raptors, including endangered and critically endangered species of vultures and eagles, suggests that the current approach to protecting wildlife here is not sufficient.”
This problem is even more worrying because of what has already happened elsewhere in Togo. Two other national parks in the country have been almost completely destroyed by human activities. Without significant changes in park management, Fazao-Malfakassa could face the same future. During their fieldwork documenting birds in the park, the researchers found abundant evidence of poaching, trees cut down for honey, and the wholesale destruction of forest to grow crops. They also found large areas where trees were incinerated to produce commercial charcoal, a popular fuel in Africa that is made by slowly burning wood for use in cooking, and evidence of large herds of cattle grazing. All of these activities are banned in the park because they destroy its wildlife and habitat, but evidence of them was found throughout the park, even close to ranger stations, demonstrating that laws are being broken in plain sight without consequence.
The research also revealed some of the factors enabling these damaging activities. People making and selling charcoal can earn in just a few weeks what a park ranger would earn over months or years. Such conditions create perverse incentives for people to break the rules. For example, some of the men involved in charcoal production and herding cattle in the park told the research team they were working for powerful business people with connections to government officials. When the park shifted from private to government control in 2015, law enforcement weakened, and destructive activities increased. Park rangers have also reported that many of the people they have arrested are simply released afterwards and allowed to return to the park to continue their illegal activities with impunity.
The Abyssinian Ground-Hornbill, which is considered vulnerable to global extinction by the IUCN, was widespread in Togo in the past but now has been extirpated everywhere but Fazao-Malfakassa National Park; however, it is extremely rare, with sightings of only three birds in the last six years. Photo by Sylvain Gatti.
Even with these serious challenges, there are clear paths forward to save Togo’s last remaining large protected area. To address the conflicts of interest that currently undermine law enforcement, park management should ideally be turned over to the supervision of a private foundation, which has been demonstratably more effective at protecting wildlife and habitats compared to state management in Togo. The researchers also recommend better support for rangers working to enforce the laws protecting the park, monitoring wildlife through counts and surveys to track what’s happening in the park, and outreach to local communities. Conducting regular counts of birds and mammals helps measure whether conservation efforts are working by monitoring trends in the park’s wildlife and habitats. The goal is not just to stop the damage but to bring back some of what has been lost. If these changes aren’t made soon, Fazao-Malfakassa could become another lost piece of Africa’s natural heritage.
Journal Reference
Kaboumba, L.-E.M., Di Lecce, I., Afiademanyo, K.M., Kourdjouak, Y., Arcilla, N. “Assessing Threats to Fazao-Malfakassa National Park, Togo, Using Birds as Indicators of Biodiversity Conservation.” Land, 2025, 14(2), 225. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/land14020225
Image Credits
Sylvain Uriot, Nico Arcilla, Sylvain Gatti.
About the Authors
Nico Arcilla is president of IBCP, whose mission is to foster and support research, outreach, and partnerships to advance the conservation of birds worldwide. She earned her PhD at the University of Georgia, USA, and is an affiliate fellow at the University of Nebraska, USA and a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Hornbill Specialist Group. Her research and conservation projects in the Americas, Pacific and Caribbean islands, Africa and Madagascar, and Europe and the Middle East have contributed to nearly 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles to date.
Lin-Ernni Mikégraba Kaboumba is a conservation scientist with the International Bird Conservation Partnership (IBCP) who recently earned a MSc at the University of Lomé, Togo. His research focuses on birds, their habitats, and conservation threats in Fazao-Malfakassa National Park, as well as sacred forests, critically endangered vultures, and illegal wildlife trade, among other urgent conservation challenges. Kaboumba is currently researching Abyssinian Ground-Hornbills, which are almost extinct in much of West Africa and survive in Togo only in Fazao-Malfakassa National Park.
Irene Di Lecce is a PhD student at the University of Warsaw, Poland, where she studies promiscuity of passerine birds breeding in natural cavities in a primeval and urban forest, and in nest-boxes set in a gradient of urbanisation. She earned her MSc in Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Milan, Italy, with a thesis on the impact of ectoparasites and their pathogens on migratory songbirds. As a research fellow with IBCP, she is focused on bird research and conservation issues, especially in West and Central Africa.
Komlan Afiademanyo is Professor of Zoology at the University of Lomé, Togo, and earned his PhD from the Institute of Zoology at the University of Liège, Belgium. He has conducted research contributing to scientific publications on a wide range of wildlife taxa, including birds, mammals, mollusks, crustaceans, fish, and herpetofauna, as well as on bushmeat and invasive species. He collaborates with IBCP on research on birds and other wildlife in Fazao-Malfakassa National Park in Togo.
Yendoubouam Kourdjouak studied zoology at the University of Lomé, Togo, and is both a successful entrepreneur in Lomé and IBCP’s Africa Project Manager. Yendoubouam facilitates and assists bird research, outreach, and partnerships in Togo, including in Fazao-Malfakassa National Park and Togodo Wildlife Reserve. He also contributes to and supports IBCP projects in Bénin, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Chad with a focus on research as well as community outreach and education, environmental restoration, and nature protection.
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