The Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve'', whose site is historically known as Majang, is situated on the

Mambilla Plateau The Mambilla Plateau is a plateau in the Taraba State of Nigeria. The Mambilla Plateau has an average elevation of about above sea level, making it the highest plateau in Nigeria. Some of its villages are situated on hills that are at least above ...

in NE

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, covering 46 km². It can be reached on foot from Yelwa village past the Mayo Jigawal, from where it is less than half an hour’s walk to the upper edge of the forest. The altitude ranges from up to .Birdlife International fact sheet
/ref> Ngel Nyaki was formally gazetted a local authority Forest Reserve under Gashaka - Mambilla Native Authority Forest order of April 1969, but at present it is under the management of the Taraba State Government and the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), with the Nigerian Montane Forest Project (NMFP) as a project partner. In November 2014 a long term monitoring vegetation plot was established in the reserve, funded by Nigerian philanthropist

Theophilus Danjuma Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (born 9 December 1938) is a politician and retired Nigerian army lieutenant general who played a key role in post independence military and political events in Nigeria. Danjuma amassed an enormous fortune through ship ...

and administered by the Nigerian Montane Forest Project. The research plot is part of the

Center for Tropical Forest Science The Center for Tropical Forest Science, or CTFS, was a consortium of forest researchers who pursued long-term research on tree populations using comparable census method. The work developed out of a study of 50 hectares of forest on Barro Colorado I ...

(CTFS) global network operated through the

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI, es, Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales) is located in Panama and is the only bureau of the Smithsonian Institution based outside of the United States. It is dedicated to understa ...

Vegetation

The reserve contains a stand of rare dry type

montane Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

to sub-montane forest and is the only forest of its type left on the heavily populated Mambilla plateau.Nigerian Montane Forest Project website
/ref> The forest is an isolated fragment of approximately 7.5 km². The forest is diverse in

species composition Species richness is the number of different species represented in an community (ecology), ecological community, landscape or region. Species richness is simply a count of species, and it does not take into account the Abundance (ecology), abunda ...

, amongst the most floristically diverse montane–submontane forest stands in Nigeria, and has many tall emergents (e.g. '' Aningeria altissima'', locally exclusive to this forest). Four tree species are Red Data listed ('' Entandrophragma angolense, Lovoa trichilioides, Millettia conraui, Aningeria altissima''), and several, such as ''Anthonotha noldeae'' are new to West Africa and others new to Nigeria. An illustrated checklist of the flora of Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve has been created.An illustrated checklist of the flora of Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve
/ref>

Fauna

Ngel Nyaki is home to a population of the rare and endangered

Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee The Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes ellioti'') is a subspecies of the common chimpanzee which inhabits the rainforest along the border of Nigeria and Cameroon. Male Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees can weigh up to 70 kilos with a bo ...

, ''Pan troglodytes'' subsp. ''ellioti''. It is estimated that the chimpanzee population in the forest comprises a single interbreeding community of 11–13 adults. Other primates including

putty-nosed monkey The greater spot-nosed monkey or putty-nosed monkey (''Cercopithecus nictitans'') is one of the smallest Old World monkeys. It is a guenon of the '' C. mitis'' group, native to West Africa and living to some extent in rain forests, but more often ...

(''Cercopithecus nictitans''),

mona monkey The mona monkey (''Cercopithecus mona'') is an Old World monkey that lives in western Africa between Ghana and Cameroon. The mona monkey can also be found on the island of Grenada as it was transported to the island aboard slave ships headed to ...

(''Cercopithecus mona'') and

tantalus monkey The tantalus monkey (''Chlorocebus tantalus'') is an Old World monkey from Africa that ranges from Ghana to Sudan. It was originally described as a subspecies of the grivet (''Chlorocebus aethiops''). All species in ''Chlorocebus'' were formerly ...

(''Chlorocebus tantalus'') also inhabit the forest. Birds such as turacos, the Cameroon olive-pigeon (''Columba sjostedti''),

double-toothed barbet The double-toothed barbet (''Lybius bidentatus'') is a species of bird in the family Lybiidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equ ...

(''Lybius bidentatus'') and green bulbul are common. Freshwater crayfish belonging to the genus ''Astacopsis'' are abundant in the forested streams. Ngel Nyaki has been classified as an Important Bird Area by Birdlife International. Species of interest include the IUCN vulnerable

Bannerman's weaver Bannerman's weaver (''Ploceus bannermani'') is a species of bird in the weaver family, Ploceidae. It is found in Cameroon and Nigeria. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. It is threatened by habitat loss. It ...

(''Ploceus bannermani'') and the near threatened Crossley's ground-thrush (''Zoothera crossleyi''). 158 bird species were recorded on the Mambilla Plateau between 13 November – 22 December 2003 by Tony Disley, many of them were within Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve.

References

{{Protected areas of Nigeria Forest Reserves of Nigeria 1969 establishments in Nigeria