A camera trap footage by surveying scientists and researchers of A Rocha International in the Atewa mountain range forests of eastern Ghana led to the discovery of an almost extinct species of monkeys, the white-naped mangabeys for the first time in the area. The white-naped mangabeys (Cercocebus lunulatus), with their distinctive dark markings of sideburn and long tails, have declined in population by almost 50 percent and are listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN and are known to only exist in a small pocket of forests in western Ghana. Environmentalists and conservationists although, are concerned by the news that this forest area in Atewa is already ear-marked for bauxite mining. Bauxite is one of the key components of aluminum production, and its ore is abundant in the forest area of Atewa. This area of the Upper Guinean Forest was once a huge rainforest stretching from Guinea and Sierra Leone to Ghana and Togo, has shrunk considerably due to human influence, to become one of the most threatened forest systems of the world. Further mining and extraction of bauxite might spell doom on the existence of the unique and irreplaceable species found in the area, including the white-napes mangabeys.
As reported by Mongabay, on January 11, 2018