Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
rainforest; 333 bird species, elephants, leopards , zebras,
duikers
Gola Forest Reserve Sierra Leone
Nov-Apr
Tiwai Island Wildlife
Sanctuary
Sierra Leone
pygmy hippos, chimpanzees, 120 bird species
Nov-Apr
Outamba-Kilimi Na-
tional Park
Sierra Leone
elephants, primates, hippos,
Nov-Apr
Parc National de
Fazao-Malfakassa
Togo
elephants, monkeys, antelopes, over 200 bird species
Dec-May
* appears on Unesco's World Heritage list
Deforestation
West Africa was once covered in forests, but only a tiny fraction of the original forest cov-
er remains and even that is under threat. In 1990, for example, forests covered 42.1% of
Liberian territory; 15 years later, the figure had dropped to just 32.7%. Other alarming
falls were recorded during the same period in Benin (30% to 21.3%) and Togo (12.6% to
7.1%). Deforestation is similarly acute in Côte d'Ivoire.
A citizen of urban Britain, Australia or the USA consumes more than 50 times more of the earth's re-
sources than a rural inhabitant of Niger or Guinea-Bissau.
The extent of the problem is evident from the causes - increased population growth,
commercial logging, the clearing of trees for farming and slash-and-burn farming tech-
niques - the effects of most of which are either irreversible or require massive investment
from often impoverished governments. Potential earnings in global timber markets, for
example, are infinitely more attractive (and lucrative) than preserving wildlife for the
trickle of tourists who come to see it.
Conflict and refugee movement can also have important flow-on effects for local forest
coverage. During the conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia, neighbouring Guinea played
host to one of the world's largest refugee populations, especially in the Parrot's Beak re-
gion, wedged between its two neighbours. Satellite images from 1974 show that forests
completely covered the Parrot's Beak wedge of Guinean territory; by 2002, satellite im-
ages showed that none of it had survived the massive human influx.
Seeds of Famine,
by Richard Franke and Barbara Chasin, is as dry as the Sahel dust but essential reading
for anyone keen to learn more about the connection between colonial policies and the droughts that still
face the region.
