Fwd: [Nature Potpourri] Liberia Protects Habitat for Critically Endangered Chimpanzees

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MONROVIA, Liberia, December 8, 2003 (ENS) - Liberia's interim

government has created a new nature reserve and expanded a national

park, preserving 155,000 acres of mostly intact forest. Head of

government, Gyude Bryant, published three new bills in November that

represent a 60 percent increase in protected areas and a reform of

the country's natural resource conservation policies.

The protected areas will benefit the world's largest known population

of the critically endangered Western chimpanzee by helping to defend

against major threats to the Liberia's biodiversity such as

unsustainable logging and poaching.

 

The Sapo National Park will expand by 123,550 acres, (50,000

hectares). The newly created Nimba Nature Reserve borders a World

Heritage Site in neighboring Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire and will expand

Liberia's protected areas by an additional 33,350 acres (13,500

hectares).

 

" These new protected areas open avenues for economic expansion

through the ecological, social and recreational value of biological

diversity, " said Harry A. Greaves, Jr., Bryant's economic advisor.

 

Liberia is emerging from a three year civil war that has been part of

a 14 year conflict claiming the lives of more than 200,000 people.

Liberia's former president, Charles Taylor, is exiled in Nigeria.

 

Today, hundreds of Liberian fighters handed in their guns to United

Nations peacekeepers at Schieffelin camp, 35 kilometers southeast of

the capital, Monrovia, as the formal disarmament, demobilization and

reintegration of an estimated 40,000 combatants began. A United

Nations peacekeeping force is set to expand to 15,000 troops by

March.

 

Conservationists regard the three laws expanding the country's

protected areas as a sign that the new Liberian government is

committed to ensuring that critical remaining forests are secured for

the more than 2,000 flowering plants, 620 birds, 150 mammals, and 120

reptiles that can still be found there.

 

" Liberia's new government took a significant leap forward today by

expanding its protected area system by 60 percent, " said Alex Peal,

director of Conservation International Liberia. " By safeguarding its

natural resources, the people of Liberia will be able to enjoy a more

sustainable long term future. "

 

Boundaries of the newly protected areas were determined by satellite

imagery and geographic information systems, as well as field surveys

contributed by the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science at

Conservation International and the nonprofit organization Fauna and

Flora International working together.

 

The two groups also provided technical input for the preparation of

the new laws. The European Union and Critical Ecosystems Partnership

Fund both supported the Liberia Forest Reassessment.

 

Scientists estimate that 600,000 western chimpanzees once lived

throughout western Africa, but fewer than 25,000 remain. The numbers

are expected to drop dramatically, with entire populations forecast

to disappear within 10 to 20 years. They are classified as endangered

by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

Other endemic species are at risk in the region, including the pygmy

hippopotamus, the Liberian mongoose and the white-breasted guinea

fowl. Several populations of endangered forest elephants also inhabit

the region.

 

The forest reform process took a major step forward in mid-October,

when more than 200 Liberian foresters gathered at a workshop led by

Conservation International and the Society for Liberian Foresters.

 

Workshop participants from the public and private sector, civil

society and international organizations agreed upon a resolution to

increase Liberia's technical capacity for sustainable logging,

improve financial management and transparency and improve overall

management of the Forest Development Authority.

 

Liberia lies within the Guinean Forest of West Africa Hotspot, making

it one of the world's 25 biodiversity hotspots, areas that contain

large numbers of endemic species under severe threat.

 

The hotspot covers portions of 11 countries in the region, but more

than 40 percent of the original forest cover survives in Liberia. The

forest is home to half of all known African mammal species, and is

among the highest priority regions in the world for primate

conservation.

 

With the expansion, four percent of Liberia's forests now fall within

protected areas. Extreme habitat fragmentation and degradation

continue to threaten much of the remainder of Liberia's unprotected

forests.

 

 

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