Analyses des croyances locales liées au chimpanzés (pan troglodytes verus) dans le paysage central du parc national pencely-soyah-sabouyah, république de Guinée

From November 2023 to June 2024, local beliefs regarding the conservation of Pan Troglodytes Verus were monitored in the seven districts of the central landscape of Pencely-Soyah-Sabouyah National Park in Mamou. The objective was to analyze local perceptions and traditional beliefs of people associated with chimpanzees, then to exploit the threats to this great ape and highlight the constraints by highlighting its vulnerabilities. Their attitudes towards the creation of the future park, the threats, the causes of their abundance and their change in behavior, the beliefs and local perceptions of local communities on chimpanzees were studied using an ethno-zoological approach based on interviews using a questionnaire merged with quantitative and qualitative social research methods, through surveys, focus groups and participant observation (Ouedraogo et al, 2020). The results of this research show that the main cause of the increase in chimpanzees is due to 60.62% by traditional conservation, and the aggression of chimpanzees on people and the destruction of livelihoods (crops, plantations, livestock) occupy 64.37% of the cause of decline of this local belief. And the decline of this traditional belief represents the greatest threat which is at 53.12% against 34.37% of threats related to the destruction of their habitats and 10.62% due to the presence of predators in their habitats which push them to migrate out of the park, towards densely populated areas. The prioritization of chimpanzee conservation to the detriment of local populations occupies 46.87% of the weakness of the chimpanzee management method against 40.62% due to the lack of involvement of local communities in resource management. Finally, this study revealed that 53.12% of the cause of behavioral change of chimpanzees from docile to aggressive is due to the destruction of their habitat and 90.62% of local communities are opposed to the creation of the PSS national park on their territories. Despite the assurance of their protection by law (IUCN, 2024) in this locality, the decline of their conservation by local beliefs and the pressure of anthropogenic activities on their habitats could negatively influence their abundance (Narat et al, 2015).