The book of antelopes (1894) Cephalophus jentinki

The Gola Rainforest National Park (GRNP) was declared by

President of Sierra Leone The president of the Republic of Sierra Leone is the head of state and the head of government of Sierra Leone, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. As the head of the executive branch of the Sierra Leone government, the presi ...

Ernest Bai Koroma Ernest Bai Koroma (born 2 October 1953) is a Sierra Leone, Sierra Leonean politician who served as the fourth President of Sierra Leone from 17 September 2007 to 4 April 2018. Born and raised in Makeni in northern Sierra Leone, Koroma spent mo ...

and enacted by the

Parliament of Sierra Leone Parliament of Sierra Leone is the legislative branch of the government of Sierra Leone. It is principally responsible for making laws. The Sierra Leone parliament consists of 146 members, of which 132 members are directly elected from across Si ...

in December 2010. The park amalgamates Gola North Forest Reserve, Gola East Forest Reserve and Gola West Forest Reserves, and is

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

's second national park. The GRNP is Sierra Leone's largest tract of

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

, and covers 71,070 hectares in the east of the country. Recent biological surveys show that the forest is home to more than 330 species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s, 14 of which are threatened, over 650 species of

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

and 49 species of

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s, including a population of 300+

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...

pygmy hippopotamus The pygmy hippopotamus or pygmy hippo (''Choeropsis liberiensis'') is a small hippopotamid which is native to the forests and swamps of West Africa, primarily in Liberia, with small populations in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Ivory Coast. It has bee ...

es and a much dwindled

forest elephant The African forest elephant (''Loxodonta cyclotis'') is one of the two living African elephant species. It is native to humid forests in West Africa and the Congo Basin. It is the smallest of the three living elephant species, reaching a shoulde ...

population. The GRNP is part of the Upper Guinea Forest, a

biodiversity hotspot A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation. Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in ''The Environmentalist'' in 1988 and 1990, after which the co ...

that stretches from Guinea to Togo. The forest has been commercially exploited in the past, with over 20,000 hectares being logged between the 1960s and 1980s, and has recently been under pressure for the exploitation of diamonds and iron ore and was the subject of a recent report b
Global Witness
However, since the 1990s, the forest has been the subject of a conservation project to protect the forest for the long term whilst ensuring the involvement and livelihood improvement of forest edge communities. The project is a collaboration between the Government of Sierra Leone, th
Conservation Society of Sierra Leone
and th
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
A similar action has also been instituted across the

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

border in the Liberian

Gola Forest Community Gola may refer to: Groups and tribes *Gola people, a tribal people and language in Liberia *Gola (community/surname), part of Kumhar community in North India. Geography Poland * Gola Dzierżoniowska in Lower Silesian Voivodeship (south-west Pola ...

, since the two communities share similar cultures and people as well as animal and plant species. The

Lofa-Mano National Park The Lofa-Mano National Park is a proposed national park in Liberia. It was proposed in 1979. This site is . The park was proposed to protect an area of unexploited forest in the north-west of the country, bordering Sierra Leone, an area described ...

has been proposed in northeastern Liberia, adjoining the park.

Sources

* Sierra Leone Gazette Vol. CXLI. No 87 Dated 16 December 2010 'Proclamation for the Constitution of the Gola Rainforest National Park'

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control National parks of Sierra Leone Protected areas established in 2010 2010 establishments in Sierra Leone