More than 28 experts attended a workshop held in Béjaïa, Algeria, from October 18th to 20th, to discuss a national strategy to protect and safeguard the Barbary Macaque in Algeria.

The experts started by complementing and validating the national strategy document on the Barbary Macaque in Algeria and agreed on the "vision", the "purpose", the objectives and the actions to be carried out in order to constitute a Strategy and Action Plan for this species.

This workshop brought together national and local authorities, the IUCN Secretariat (IUCN-Med), IUCN Commissions and members of conservation NGOs, as well as international experts on the subject, to revise the first version of the Macaque conservation strategy in Algeria.

Decreasing populations of Barbary Apes in North Africa are mainly associated with habitat loss due to intensive logging for charcoal, clearing of land for agriculture and fire. These events have also led to changes in the species' feeding behaviour and have resulted in conflicts with local communities. Even though the territory of Barbary Macaques previously stretched from Libya to Morocco, its distribution is now limited to small relics of forests and maquis in Algeria and Morocco.

At the international level and since the last Conference of the Parties, this species protection has increased and the Barbary Macaque is now included in Annex I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) .

This workshop was organized by the IUCN Center for Mediterranean Cooperation in collaboration with the General Directorate of Forests in Algeria, within the framework of the project "Development and implementation of species action plans in the Mediterranean countries : Improving management capacity for the conservation of threatened species in the Maghreb ".

This project was launched in 2012 with the collaboration of the IUCN Species Programme and the support of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, the IUCN Species Conservation Planning Subcommittee, and government agencies responsible for the environment and conservation of species and ecosystems in the three countries involved (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia).

For more information: Violeta Barrios

Photo: Barbary Macaque with its baby © Aissa Moali