Following decades of overhunting, two new threats could finally seal the fate of one of Africa's most enigmatic species, the addax. Already Critically Endangered, with at best some 100 individuals left in the wild, the quest for oil coupled with the impacts of chronic insecurity are conspiring to do the rest.
Massive disturbance by oil companies working in the addax's last major stronghold in the deserts of eastern Niger are rapidly negating the progress made by the government and its conservation partners to halt the addax's decline while creating conditions for its recovery. These include the establishment of a vast desert reserve for the addax and other threatened species such as the dama gazelle, cheetah and Barbary sheep, in 2012, and the recruitment and equipping of dozens of new rangers. Efforts to engage the oil companies involved in discussions on how to reduce the impact of their operations on critical addax habitat have so far fallen on deaf ears. Related to this but with even greater direct impact has been the illegal hunting carried out by the military detachments seconded to the petroleum camps to ensure their protection. Ongoing wildlife monitoring is reporting vastly reduced addax sightings and a virtual absence of the antelopes from their previous haunts.
In addition to oil, the fall of the Qaddafi regime in 2011 continues to have consequences for the entire Sahelo–Saharan region of Africa and beyond. Following Libya's meltdown the number of guns and all-terrain vehicles has increased dramatically in neighbouring countries. The once tranquil and rarely visited deserts are now criss-crossed by traffickers of all sorts, and whether by design or by default their impact on wildlife has been significant, with signs of hunting and the trophies of dead animals grim witness to their passage. As crippling are the restrictions put on conservationists from working in areas deemed to be unsafe, currently the majority of the entire Sahara and Sahel!
In response to all this, an alliance spearheaded by the Sahara Conservation Fund and the IUCN Antelope Specialist Group is calling for the support of the leaders of both Niger and Chad to increase the presence of wildlife rangers in key areas and to use their convening power to bring all stakeholders together to adopt meaningful action plans to halt the decline of the addax and associated species before it is too late.
