Long-term effects of logging on African primate communities: a 28-year comparison from Kibale National Park, Uganda

If logging is to be compatible with primate conservation, primate populatio ns must be expected to recover from the disturbance and eventually return t o their former densities. Surveys conducted over 28 years were used to quan tify the long-term effects of both low- and high-intensity selective loggin g on the density of the five common primates in Kibale National Park, Ugand a. The most dramatic exception to the expectation that primate populations will recover following logging was that group densities of Cercopithecus mi tis and C. ascanius in the heavily logged area continued to decline decades after logging. Procolobus tephrosceles populations were recovering in the heavily logged areas, but the rate of increase appeared to be slow (0.005 g roups/km(2) per year). Colobus guereza appeared to do well in some disturbe d habitats and were found at higher group densities in the logged areas tha n in the unlogged area. There was no evidence of an increase in Lophocebus albigena group density in the heavily logged area since the time of the log ging, and there was a tendency for its population to be lower in heavily lo gged areas that in lightly logged areas. In contrast to the findings from t he heavily logged area, none of the species were found at a lower group den sity in the lightly logged area than in the unlogged area, and group densit ies in this area were not changing at a statistically significant rate. The results of our study suggest that, in this region, low-intensity selective logging could be one component of conservation plans for primates; high-in tensity logging, however, which is typical of most logging operations throu ghout Africa, is incompatible with primate conservation.