Just before a transitional government took its place in Liberia on Oct. 14, outgoing President Moses Blah signed three landmark laws representing an important step forward in securing protection for Liberia’s globally important biodiversity.
The three laws—the Protected Forest Area Network Law, the Sapo National Park Act and the Nimba Nature Reserve Act—aim to protect Liberia’s forests from deforestation, fragmentation and degradation.
Preparation of the laws was led by Fauna & Flora International (FFI) with technical input from numerous Liberian and international partners and with financial support principally from the European Commission, CEPF and the Panton Trust. All three laws were passed by the Liberian legislature earlier this year. They will now come into force shortly, after printing as handbills.
Liberia contains two of the three remaining large blocks of Upper Guinean rainforest: the Lofa-Gola-Mano block in the northwest contiguous with Sierra Leone, and the southeast Liberian block that extends into Taï National Park of Côte d’Ivoire.
The Upper Guinean Forest, CEPF’s strategic focal area in the Guinean Forests of West Africa hotspot, is a coastal rain forest belt covering six countries from western Togo to eastern Sierra Leone. Today roughly 40 percent of the original Upper Guinean forest cover survives in Liberia alone.
"Liberia harbors large primate populations, including the Diana monkey, the red colobus and the western chimpanzee," says Jamison Suter, FFI senior projects advisor. "A survey of the forests of the middle Cestos and Senkwehn rivers in early 1999 found dozens of endangered bird species, some thought extinct or whose range had not been established before in Liberia. The recently passed laws provide a framework in which efforts to conserve species such as these can be undertaken."
The first of the laws amends the New National Forestry Act of 2000. It defines a series of eight protected area types and the uses permitted and prohibitions for each, establishing a coherent legal framework for conservation of forest resources.
The second Act expands Sapo National Park—Liberia’s first and only fully protected area—to more than 180,000 hectares, an increase of 38 percent. Biological surveys coupled with GIS and remote sensing analysis since 2001 have demonstrated that Sapo Park is among West Africa’s least disturbed lowland rainforest areas, with populations of forest elephants, chimpanzees, pygmy hippos and other species whose West African ranges have been severely reduced outside of Liberia. Botanical collection experts who visited the Park in late 2002 found six species new to science in just 10 days.
The third Act creates the Nimba Nature Reserve out of the former Nimba East National Forest. Analysis indicates this mountainous reserve could be as great as 13,568 hectares. The reserve is contiguous with the Nimba Nature Reserves of Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire, which together were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1981.
Together, these laws represent significant progress toward the overall goal of creating a biologically representative network of protected areas covering at least 30 percent of the country’s existing forest area or about 1.5 million hectares. The government of Liberia committed to establishing this network, including an expansion of Sapo National Park and creation of Nimba Nature Reserve, as part of a Memorandum of Understanding signed with Conservation International—one of five CEPF donor partners—in 2002.
"During the unrest CEPF kept relationships with grantees alive and did not withdraw support from any projects that could be safely conducted," CEPF Executive Director Jorgen Thomsen said. "The signing of this legislation at this critical political juncture demonstrates that conservation achievement is possible even in very difficult circumstances. Donor support is really important during these times of conflict. I commend other donors who, like CEPF, have maintained their support for on-the-ground conservation action in Liberia."
CEPF has made a significant contribution to conservation in Liberia and hopes that others will join the effort to conserve this extraordinary area.