Illegal activities are again reportedly increasing in the Sapo National Park in Sinoe County and are affecting the park’s ecosystem and creating environmental hazard for residents. Mining for gold and diamond was a major activity of Liberians and foreigners alike in recent years until government ‘evicted” the miners.
Speaking to the Liberia News Agency (LINA) during a two-day visit to the park, Johnny Wealiah, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of the Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia (SCNL), said the government through the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) needs to put in place measures to regulate activities in the park to ensure its protection from intruders.
The SCNL officer has also called on the community dwellers themselves to report the presence of strangers in the park, noting that Ghanaians and Ivoirians are using the Grand Gedeh-Maryland entry point to get into the park.
Several residents in the district told LINA that the illegal activities are posing a serious threat to the community’s well-being; undermining education as school-age girls are now manning homes as mothers, as well as damaging the water system and the forest ecosystem.
They have called on central government to intervene in a timely manner to ensure protection of the park and the safety of community dwellers on the periphery of the forest.
Established in 1983, the Sapo National Park in Sinoe County is Liberia’s largest protected area of rainforest and its only national park.
The park contains the second-largest area of primary tropical rainforest in West Africa after Taï National Park in neighboring Côte d’Ivoire.
Agriculture, construction, fishing, hunting, human settlement, and logging are prohibited in the park.