Gabela (6010)
Angola, Africa

Site overview

KBA status: confirmed

Global KBA criteria: A1e, B2

Year of last assessment: 2018

National site name: Gabela

Central coordinates: Latitude: -10.8500, Longitude: 14.3667

System: terrestrial

Elevation (m): 1000 to 1000

Area of KBA (km²): 1915.14858

KBA classification: Global

Legacy site: Yes

Site details

Site description: The site lies on the escarpment zone where an area of about 200,000 ha of impoverished semi-deciduous moist forest (an outlier of Guinea–Congo forest) has the richest array of local endemics bird species in Angola. The rainfall is markedly seasonal, with November–December and February–April the months in which most rain falls. Tree genera in the forest include Ficus, Newtonia, Albizia, Celtis, Ceiba and Pterocarpus. Oil palms Elaeis are common, and epiphytes are abundant on the trees. Although the undergrowth of the forest has been cleared and the forest floor extensively planted with coffee, current coffee production is low, and much of the forested area is relatively undisturbed by human activity. However, valley bottoms in the area are now being cleared by subsistence farmers (Hawkins 1993) and this is a matter for some concern.

Rationale for qualifying as KBA: This site qualifies as a Key Biodiversity Area of international significance that meets the thresholds for at least one criterion described in the Global Standard for the Identification of KBAs. Alliance for Zero Extinction (2018): site confirmed as an AZE site during the AZE project (2015-2018). Taxonomy, nomenclature and Red List category follow the IUCN 2016 Red List.

Additional biodiversity: See Box and Tables 2 and 3 for key species. The site is important for six species of global conservation concern—all have a restricted range, all but one are endemic to Angola, and most are uncommon at the site. Prionops gabela is found only at Gabela and along the road to Muxima, while Sheppardia gabela is virtually confined to the Gabela area. The Angolan endemic Platysteira albifrons has been collected at Quirimbo, just north of Gabela, and is likely to occur in thickets and woodland at lower elevations in the general area. The globally threatened Macrosphenus pulitzeri is highly likely to occur in secondary forest in the south of the region. The site is also important for species of the Guinea–Congo Forests biome and Afrotropical Highlands biome. The forests at Gabela are the only known locality in Angola for Alethe poliocephala, Dyaphorophyia blisseti, Parus funereus, Ploceus insignis and Cryptospiza reichenovii, and are one of the few sites in Angola where Stephanoaetus coronatus is known to occur. Other poorly known species that occur in the forest include Cercotrichas leucosticta and Hylia prasina. Numerous species reach the southern limit of their Angolan distributions at Gabela, including Campethera nivosa, C. caroli, Phyllastrephus albigularis, Neocossyphus fraseri, Muscicapa cassini, Trochocercus nitens, Batis minulla, Illadopsis fulvescens, Oriolus nigripennis and Spermophaga ruficapilla. The avifauna of the forest includes a surprising number of savanna species (including three of the Zambezian biome)—for example, Kaupifalco monogrammicus, Accipiter badius and Turdus libonyana are present during the dry season. The avifauna is relatively better known than other areas in Angola, but most ornithological fieldwork has been directed towards collecting. A preliminary project on the biology of selected elements of the avifauna of the escarpment in the area has been done (Hawkins 1993). Non-bird biodiversity: Bats that have been collected include the rare Epomops franqueti (Cabral 1989).

Habitats

Land use: agriculture

IUCN Habitat	Coverage %	Habitat detail
Artificial - Terrestrial	2
Savanna	18
Forest	67
Shrubland	12

Threats

Summary of threats to biodiversity at KBA: A protected area of 50 km² in the area was recommended by Huntley (1974b), but was not established (Huntley and Matos 1994). Threats to the avifauna include removal of 20–70% of canopy trees and all the undergrowth in the valley bottoms for planting of bananas and sweet potatoes, while up to 95% of the canopy is removed for planting cassava and maize (Hawkins 1993). Vegetation may be removed by burning. Hunting of small mammals and birds is probably common.

Additional information