Boé (201004)
Guinea-Bissau, Africa
Site overview
KBA status: confirmed
Global KBA criteria: A1a, A1c, C
Year of last assessment: 2024
National site name: Boé
Central coordinates: Latitude: 11.8555, Longitude: -13.9778
System: terrestrial, freshwater, freshwater, freshwater
Elevation (m): 40 to 277
Area of KBA (km2): 2462.45764
Protected area coverage (%): 41.42
KBA classification: Global
Legacy site: No
Site details
Site description: The Boé KBA is located in the southeast of Guinea-Bissau, within the Gabú region, covering approximately 2,461.54 km². The area is bordered by the Corubal River and KBA Dulombi to the west and by Guinea-Conakry to the south and east. Its relative isolation has limited infrastructure development and large-scale land conversion.
Boé forms part of the Sudan–Guinea savanna transition zone and is characterised by a gently undulating plateau landscape at approximately 50–250 m above sea level. The geology is dominated by lateritic formations, creating extensive open grasslands locally known as bowals, interspersed with wooded savannas and gallery forests along seasonal river valleys.
Several important rivers, including the Corubal and the Féfiné, drain the region. During the rainy season (annual rainfall 1,600–2,100 mm), low-lying areas known as bolanhas become seasonally inundated, forming marshes and floodplains. In some areas, these wetlands develop into partly permanent lakes (vendu), which are important freshwater habitats.
The site comprises a mosaic of terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, including savanna woodlands, gallery forests, seasonal wetlands, and floodplains. This landscape heterogeneity underpins the area’s high biodiversity value.
Rationale for qualifying as KBA: The Boé Key Biodiversity Area (southeastern Guinea-Bissau) is recognized for its globally important population of Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), triggering KBA Standard criteria A1a and A1c. The site forms part of one of the largest remaining forest–savanna landscapes in West Africa, providing important habitat for chimpanzees and numerous other threatened species.
Additional biodiversity: Large parts of the Boé landscape remain free from large-scale human disturbance. This extensive and well-connected mosaic of savanna, gallery forest, woodland and wetlands provides habitat for a wide range of species, most notably the Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). The site supports an estimated 1,465–4,415 individuals. The chimpanzees occurring in Boé belong to the western chimpanzee subspecies (Pan troglodytes verus), which is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Boé is widely recognised as one of the most important remaining landscapes for the conservation of western chimpanzees in West Africa.
Boé also supports other threatened mammals characteristic of the West African forest–savanna transition zone, including Temminck’s red colobus (Piliocolobus badius temminckii, EN), sooty mangabey (Cercocebus atys, VU), leopard (Panthera pardus, VU), and the Critically Endangered West African lion population (Panthera leo). Together, these species highlight the site's importance as a remaining stronghold for large and medium-sized mammals in the region.
The area is also important for birds. Boé supports multiple globally threatened savanna species, including four Critically Endangered vulture species. The Wendu Cham wetland, designated as a Ramsar Site of International Importance, predictably supports seasonal aggregations of migratory waterbirds during the dry season. Additional ornithological and mammal surveys are likely to reveal further threatened, restricted-range or biome-restricted species, suggesting that the site may support additional KBA trigger elements once sufficient population data become available.
Beyond its biodiversity significance, Boé forms part of the customary lands of local communities who maintain traditional governance systems and cultural practices closely linked to the landscape. Sacred forests protected under customary rules play an important role in conserving remnant forest patches, fruit resources and ecological connectivity. More than 170 sacred forests have already been documented within the proposed KBA, and additional sites are expected to be incorporated in the future. These cultural values reinforce the conservation importance of the landscape and contribute to the long-term persistence of biodiversity.
Manageability of the site: The Boé KBA is considered manageable due to the presence of formal protected areas, established customary governance systems, and existing co-management arrangements.
The site includes Boé National Park and the CheChe Ecological Corridor (established 2017), which are legally designated under Guinea-Bissau’s national protected area system and managed by the Instituto da Biodiversidade e das Áreas Protegidas (IBAP).
Areas outside the park fall under customary land tenure and are governed by village authorities and traditional leaders, within the framework of national legislation on land use, hunting, and protected species. The Direcção Geral de Florestas e Fauna (DGFF) supports enforcement.
Management is implemented through a combination of state management (IBAP), customary governance, and collaboration with local communities and NGOs. Community-based structures are well established, including village committees, local rangers, and fire management teams.
Supersedes another site: N.A.
Other site values: Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities
The Boé comprises around 80 small villages whose inhabitants identify with Fula cultural norms and traditions, though they may come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds (like Sousou and Bambara). Fula is the dominant community in the area.
Customary Land and Resource Use
Agriculture: Subsistence farming is the dominant livelihood, based on shifting cultivation of rice (Oryza spp.), millet, groundnut, and cassava. Rice fields (bolanhas) are cultivated in valley bottoms, while upland crops are grown on the savanna–forest mosaic (Temudo & Abrantes, 2014).
Forests and Sacred Groves: Sacred forest patches are under the stewardship of local communities, protected by cultural taboos and traditional rules. These areas conserve primary forest tree species (e.g., Afzelia africana, Ceiba pentandra, Sterculia tragacantha) and serve as important biodiversity refuges. However, shifting cultural values increasingly threaten their integrity, raising questions about the long-term sustainability of these community-based conservation systems (Palmeirim et al., 2023).
Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs): Fruits (e.g., Parkia biglobosa pods, Vitellaria paradoxa shea nuts), honey, and medicinal plants are widely harvested. Fruits of lianas such as Saba senegalensis and Landolphia heudelotii are collected as food and for local trade.
Livestock Grazing: Cattle, goats, and sheep are kept under extensive grazing systems by Fula herders.
Hunting and Fishing: Hunting pressure on chimpanzees has stopped thanks to conservation efforts backed by strong cultural taboos, other wildlife species are hunted for bushmeat. Fishing is practiced seasonally in rivers and floodplains.
Cultural Context
Traditional institutions regulate land access, with elders and customary chiefs responsible for enforcing norms related to sacred forests, water sources, and seasonal resource use. These customary practices play a key role in sustaining biodiversity, especially in landscapes outside formal protection.
Delineation rationale: The Boé KBA boundary follows clearly identifiable natural and administrative features visible on satellite imagery and standard GIS layers.
Northern boundary:
The boundary follows the northern bank of the Corubal River (water–land interface), with the entire river channel included within the KBA. This ensures inclusion of the full river system and associated habitats. The boundary is defined by the outer edge of the river channel as represented in hydrological datasets, acknowledging minor seasonal variation in water levels.
Eastern and southern boundaries:
These follow the international border between Guinea-Bissau and Guinea-Conakry.
Western boundary:
The boundary follows the adjacent Dulombi KBA.
Within these limits, the KBA includes the southern part of Boé National Park, the CheChe Ecological Corridor, the Wendu Cham Ramsar Site, 178 WDPA-listed sacred forest OECMs, and parts of the Cuntabane corridor, forming a single contiguous landscape.
The delineation captures all key habitat types (savanna, gallery forest, sacred forest and wetlands) and avoids fragmentation of core habitat areas. The boundary can be directly verified against satellite imagery and existing spatial datasets.
Habitats
Summary of habitats in KBA: The Boé KBA is characterized by a forest–savanna mosaic landscape. Wetlands such as bolanhas, river systems and the permanent Wendu Cham lagoon and Aicoum floodplain add further ecological diversity. Due to shifting cultivation and the strong seasonal contrasts between wet and dry periods, the extent and appearance of these land-cover types change over time. This dynamic mosaic underpins both the biodiversity value and the livelihood systems of local communities.
Land use: The Boé region is characterised by low-intensity, community-based land use within a largely intact savanna–forest mosaic. Subsistence agriculture is the dominant activity, with small upland fields used for rainfed rice, millet, cassava and groundnut, and seasonally flooded valley bottoms (bolanhas) cultivated for paddy rice. Cashew plantations are expanding but remain relatively limited. Extensive livestock grazing by Fula pastoralists follows seasonal pasture availability, while fallow cycles allow partial regeneration of woody vegetation.
Forests, including culturally protected sacred forests, are managed under customary systems and largely excluded from agriculture, while secondary forests provide non-timber forest products. Hunting and fishing are practiced at low intensity and regulated by both tradition and law, with chimpanzees protected by cultural beliefs. Settlements are small and dispersed, occupying limited space. Although the landscape remains largely intact, planned bauxite mining concessions in the south-east represent a significant potential future pressure on land use and ecological integrity.
| IUCN Habitat | Coverage % | Habitat detail |
|---|---|---|
| Savanna | 65 | Savanna - Dry |
| Forest | 15 | Forest – Subtropical/tropical dry |
| Wetlands(Inland) | 5 | Wetlands (inland) – Permanent freshwater lakes (over 8 ha) |
| Wetlands(Inland) | 5 | Wetlands (inland) – Seasonal/intermittent freshwater lakes (over 8 ha) |
| Wetlands(Inland) | 10 | Wetlands (inland) – Permanent rivers/streams/creeks (includes waterfalls) |
| Other | 19.5 | Unknown |
Threats
Summary of threats to biodiversity at KBA: Agricultural expansion and land conversion: Shifting cultivation and the progressive expansion of cashew plantations are major drivers of habitat change, leading to the loss of secondary forest and fallow land that provide key feeding and nesting areas for chimpanzees and other wildlife.
Mining and extractive industries: Large-scale bauxite mining concessions overlap with the south-eastern part of the Boé region. If developed, these operations would cause extensive habitat loss and fragmentation, introduce infrastructure (roads, camps, transport routes), and increase human presence, posing the most significant long-term threat to the western chimpanzee and the integrity of the forest–savanna mosaic, consistent with broader regional analyses of mining pressures on chimpanzee habitat (IUCN NL, 2024).
Fire regime: Annual bushfires, often associated with agricultural clearing, hunting practices, or (accidental) ignition, affect large areas of savanna and forest/shrubland. Repeated burning alters vegetation structure, suppresses woodland regeneration, and may degrade gallery forests over time, reducing habitat quality for forest-dependent species.
Logging and wood extraction: Selective felling of valuable timber species such as Pterocarpus erinaceus and Afzelia africana occurs mainly for local use but could increase if market demand rises. This leads to gradual loss of large trees that provide fruit, shade, and nesting sites for wildlife.
Hunting and wildlife use: Although cultural taboos strongly protect chimpanzees, other species — including antelopes, warthogs, and primates such as baboons — are hunted for bushmeat. The use of snares and hunting dogs has the potential to impact non-target species and may unintentionally injure chimpanzees or other protected fauna.
Infrastructure development: Mining-related development would create new roads, settlements, and transport infrastructure, opening previously remote areas to agricultural expansion, hunting, and logging, and amplifying cumulative pressures on biodiversity.
Climate change: Increasing rainfall variability and prolonged dry seasons threaten the productivity of bolanhas and other wetlands, reducing water availability for people and wildlife. More frequent extreme droughts are expected to intensify fire regimes and slow forest regeneration, compounding the effects of other pressures.
Reference:
IUCN NL. (2024). Critical minerals and the western chimpanzee: How bauxite mining threatens one of West Africa’s last strongholds. Retrieved from https://www.iucn.nl/en/story/critical-minerals-and-the-western-chimpanzee-how-bauxite-mining-threatens-one-of-west-africas-last-strongholds/
| Threat level 1 | Threat level 2 | Threat level 3 | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Climate change & severe weather | Habitat shifting & alteration | Ongoing | |
| Agriculture & aquaculture | Annual & perennial non-timber crops | Small-holder farming | Ongoing |
| Human intrusions & disturbance | Work & other activities | Ongoing | |
| Energy production & mining | Mining & quarrying | Only in the future | |
| Biological resource use | Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals | Intentional use (species being assessed is the target) | Ongoing |
| Natural system modifications | Fire & fire suppression | Suppression in fire frequency/intensity | Ongoing |
| Agriculture & aquaculture | Livestock farming & ranching | Small-holder grazing, ranching or farming | Ongoing |
Additional information
References: Bersacola, E., Bessa, J., Frazão-Moreira, A., Biro, D., Sousa, C., & Hockings, K. J. (2018). Primate occurrence across a human-impacted landscape in Guinea-Bissau and neighbouring regions in West Africa: Using a systematic literature review to highlight the next conservation steps. PeerJ, 6, e4847. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4847
BioGuinea. (2024). Boé National Park. Retrieved from https://www.bioguinea.org/protected-areas-in-guinea-bissau/boe-national-park/
Central Intelligence Agency. (2023). The World Factbook: Guinea-Bissau. CIA. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/guinea-bissau/
Chimbo Foundation. (2024). Boé: Community-based chimpanzee conservation in Guinea-Bissau. Retrieved from https://www.chimbo.org/boe/
Dias, F. S., Wenceslau, J. F. C., Marques, T. A., & Miller, D. L. (2019). Density and distribution of western chimpanzees around a bauxite deposit in the Boé Sector, Guinea-Bissau. American Journal of Primatology, 81(10), e23047. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.23047
Ferreira da Silva, M. J., et al. (2025). The illegal trade in live Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Guinea-Bissau and proposed conservation management actions. Conservation Letters. (in press)
GEF Independent Evaluation Office. (2011). Support to the consolidation of a protected area system in the Dulombi-Boé-Tchetché Complex: Terminal evaluation. https://www.gefieo.org/sites/default/files/documents/projects/tes/3575-terminal-evaluation.pdf
Gippoliti, S., & Dell’Omo, G. (2003). Primates of Guinea-Bissau, West Africa: Distribution and conservation status. African Primates, 5(1–2), 70–76.
Global Wildlife Conservation. (2019). Primates in Peril 2018–2020. Austin, TX: GWC. https://www.globalwildlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Primates-in-Peril-2018-2020.pdf
Guilherme, J. L. (2014). Birds of the Boé Region, South-East Guinea-Bissau, including first country records. Bulletin of the African Bird Club, 21(2), 155–168.
Heinicke, S., Mundry, R., Boesch, C., Amarasekaran, B., Barrie, A., Brncic, T., … Kühl, H. S. (2019). Advancing conservation planning for western chimpanzees using IUCN SSC A.P.E.S. – the case of a taxon-specific database. Environmental Research Letters, 14(6), 064001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab1379
Henschel, P., Coad, L., Burton, C., Chataigner, B., Dunn, A., MacDonald, D., … Hunter, L. (2014). The lion in West Africa is critically endangered. PLoS ONE, 9(1), e83500. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083500
Hoeven, T. van der. (2020). Assessment of land cover and forest loss in prime chimpanzee habitat in the Boé of Guinea-Bissau, West-Africa. GIMA Final Thesis Report, 156 pp.
Human Rights Watch. (2018). What do we get out of it? Human rights impact of bauxite mining in Guinea. New York: HRW. https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/10/04/what-do-we-get-out-it/human-rights-impact-bauxite-mining-guinea
Humle, T. (2003). Chimpanzees in the Loos Islands, Guinea: History, reproduction, and present status of the population. Primate Conservation, 19, 25–32.
IUCN. (2020). Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas, Version 1.0. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/49059
IUCN Save Our Species. (2018). New national parks for Guinea-Bissau. Retrieved from https://iucnsos.org/new-national-parks-for-guinea-bissau/
IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group. (2020). Regional Action Plan for the Conservation of Western Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) 2020–2030. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2020-015-En.pdf
Kühl, H. S., Sop, T., Williamson, E. A., Mundry, R., Brugière, D., Campbell, G., … Boesch, C. (2017). The critically endangered western chimpanzee declines by 80 %. American Journal of Primatology, 79(9), e22681. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22681
Lehmann, J., & Boesch, C. (2004). To fission or to fusion: Effects of community size on wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) social organisation. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 56(3), 207–216. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-004-0781-x
Minhós, T., Ferreira da Silva, M. J., Bersacola, E., Galat, G., Galat-Luong, A., Mayhew, M., & Starin, E. D. (2020). Piliocolobus badius ssp. temminckii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T18247A92648587. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-1.RLTS.T18247A92648587.en
Oliveira, T. (n.d.). Making a difference in West Africa: Community-based chimpanzee conservation in Guinea-Bissau. Society for Conservation Biology – Africa Section. https://conbio.org/groups/sections/africa/act/making-a-difference-in-west-africa-community-based-chimpanzee-conservation-in-guinea-bissau
Palmeirim, A. F., Seck, S., Palma, L., & Ladle, R. J. (2023). Shifting values and the fate of sacred forests in Guinea-Bissau: Are community-managed forests the answer? Environmental Conservation, 50(3), 152–155. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892923000164
República da Guiné-Bissau. (2017, June 28). Decreto n.º 11/2017: Classificação do Corredor Ecológico de Tchetche. Suplemento ao Boletim Oficial n.º 26.
República da Guiné-Bissau. (2017, June 28). Decreto n.º 14/2017: Classificação do Corredor Ecológico de Cuntabane–Quebo. Suplemento ao Boletim Oficial n.º 26.
Sidiki, S. (2019). Bauxite mining in the Boké Region (Western Guinea): Methods used and impacts on the physical environment. Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 7(3), 49–60.
Temudo, M. P., & Abrantes, M. (2014). The cashew frontier in Guinea-Bissau: Changing landscapes and livelihoods. Human Ecology, 42(2), 217–230. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-014-9641-0
UNEP-WCMC & IUCN. (2024). Protected Planet: Boé National Park (WDPA ID 342670); Lagune de Vendu Tcham (WDPA ID 555626106). Retrieved from https://www.protectedplanet.net
Wit, P., & Reintjes, C. (1989). An ecological reconnaissance of the Boé region, Guinea-Bissau. Bissau: IUCN/IBAP.
World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). (2025). Protected Planet: Protected Areas Database. https://www.protectedplanet.net
Contributors: - Chimbo Foundation (www.chimbo.org): René Henkens, Joris Pinkster, Annemarie Goedmakers, Piet Wit.
- Daridibó Ussumane Camara