Gola Rainforest National Park

West Africa > Sierra Leone > Gola Rainforest National Park

Summary

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• Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) are present in Gola Rainforest National Park.
• It has been estimated that 270 (CI: 159-468) individuals occur at the site.
• The chimpanzee population trend is unknown.
• This site has a total size of 710 km².
• Key threats to chimpanzees are poaching and habitat destruction due to logging and shifting agriculture.
• A REDD+ project is being developed and implemented at the site with the support of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which aims to ensure funds for the continuation of conservation work in the park and improve the management of natural resources.

Site characteristics

The site consists of three forest blocks (Gola North, Central, and South) situated in southeast Sierra Leone, which are linked to Liberia’s Gola National Park, forming a transboundary peace park. The forests in Gola Rainforest National Park are a catchment for the Moro, Mahoi, Mano and Moa rivers, providing an important water source for nearby villages (Barca et al. 2018). The area forms part of the Upper Guinean forest ecosystem, a biodiversity hotspot with a large number of endemic species. Close to 1,000 plant species have been identified in Gola Rainforest National Park, half of which are endemic to the Upper Guinea forest ecosystem. In addition to the western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus), other threatened species inhabit the area, including pygmy hippos (Choeropsis liberiensis), pangolins, red colobus (Piliocolobus badius), and Jentink’s duiker (Cephalophus jentinki). Gola Rainforest National Park is also classified as an Important Bird Area (BirdLife International 2019a) and has been included in the tentative list of World Heritage Sites.

Table 1. Basic site information for Gola Rainforest National Park

Area	710 km²
Coordinates	7.60, -10.92
Designation	National Park
Habitat types	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland Forest

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

The chimpanzee population in Gola Rainforest National Park is estimated to be 270 individuals, which is equivalent to almost 5% of Sierra Leone’s estimated population (Brncic et al. 2010). The population trend is unknown.

Table 2. Ape population estimates in Gola Rainforest National Park

Species	Year	Abundance estimate (95% confidence interval)	Density estimate (per km²)	Encounter rate (nests/km)	Area	Method	Source	Comments	A.P.E.S. database ID
Pan troglodytes verus	2006-2007			0.102	Gola West, East, North, and an extension of Gola North	Line transects (Distance)	Klop et al. 2008	Survey effort: 245.28 km. No evidence of chimpanzees found in Gola West
Pan troglodytes verus	2009	305 (203-458)	0.27 (0.18-0.42)		Gola forest reserves and potential corridors	Line transects (Distance)	Ganas 2009 as cited in Brncic et al. 2010	Survey effort: 173 km
Pan troglodytes verus	2009	270 (159-468)	0.25 (0.14-0.43)	0.76	Gola forest reserves and potential corridors	Line transects (Distance)	Brncic et al. 2010	Population estimate based on a re-analysis of data presented in Ganas 2009
Pan troglodytes verus	2015-2016			0.6	Gola Rainforest National Park	Line transects (Distance)	Barca et al. 2018	96 chimpanzee nests were recorded

Threats

Approximately 28% of Gola Forest has been subject to logging (Klop et al. 2008). Large-scale logging operations in Gola started in the 1960s and continued until the late 1980s (Klop et al. 2008). Forestry Industries Corporation (FIC) and the Sierra Leone Timber Industry and Plantation Company (Sileti) were the two main companies responsible for the exploitation of timber in Gola (Klop et al. 2008). The resulting impacts from these logging operations include an extensive road network in Gola North, and a large clearing in Gola East. During the 1991-2001 civil war in Sierra Leone, the Revolutionary United Front set up camps near Gola forest; however, a survey that compared wildlife abundances before and after the war found no evidence of serious negative impacts from the war (Lindsell et al. 2011). Current threats in the area include small-scale logging, bushmeat hunting, and shifting agriculture.

Table 3. Threats to great apes in Gola Rainforest National Park

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Quantified severity	Description	Year of threat
1. Residential & commercial development		Absent
2. Agriculture & aquaculture	2.1 Annual & perennial non-timber crops	Present		Shifting agriculture due to increasing population growth around the area and scarcity of fertile land (BirdLife International 2019b)	Ongoing (2019)
3. Energy production & mining		Absent		Extensive road network in Gola North as a result of large-scale logging activities (Klop et al. 2008), which facilitates access to the forest	Ongoing (2008)
4. Transportation & service corridors	4.1 Roads & railroads	High
5. Biological resource use	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	High		Large-scale logging operations between 1960s and 1980s (Klop et al. 2008), Small-scale logging by local communities (BirdLife International 2019a)	1960-1989
6. Human intrusions & disturbance		Unknown
7. Natural system modifications		Absent
8. Invasive & other problematic species, genes, diseases		Unknown
9. Pollution		Unknown
10. Geological Events		Absent
11. Climate change & severe weather		Unknown
12. Other options		Unknown

IUCN Threats list

Conservation activities

A conservation program began in 1990 by the Forestry Division of the government of Sierra Leone and the Conservation Society for Sierra Leone (CSSL). Since then, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) became a supporter of the conservation projects in Gola, and the site is part of RSPB’s Forests of Hope Programme. Conservation activities were interrupted by the civil war but resumed after the return of peace in 2002 (Lindsell et al. 2011). A REDD+ project is currently under development at the site. The project will use funds obtained from the sale of carbon credits to improve the management of the park, fund long-term conservation work, develop sustainable farming practices, and the establishment of a research station in the park. Gola Rainforest National Park also has its own conservation center, the Gola Rainforest Conservation Center (GRCC), which hosts visitors and researchers. The GRCC also offers capacity building and environmental education activities to the staff of the park, students, and local communities.

Table 4. Conservation activities in Gola Rainforest National Park

Category	Specific activity	Description	Year of activity
1. Residential & commercial development
2. Agriculture & aquaculture	2.1. Create natural habitat islands within agricultural land	Bordering the site, cocoa trees are strategically planted alongside tree and plant species that increase soil fertility and attract birds (BirdLife International 2018)	Ongoing (2018)
	2.11. Farm more intensively and effectively in selected areas and spare more natural land	Develop sustainable farming practices (BirdLife International 2019b)	Ongoing (2019)
3. Energy production & mining
4. Transportation & service corridors
5. Biological resource use	5.6. Conduct regular anti-poaching patrols	Forest guards patrol and monitor the forest (Gola Rainforest National Park 2019a)	Ongoing (2019)
6. Human intrusions & disturbance
7. Natural system modifications
8. Invasive & other problematic species, genes, diseases
9. Pollution
10. Education & Awareness	10.1. Educate local communities about primates and sustainable use	The Gola Rainforest Conservation Center offers environmental education and conservation awareness to school classes and local communities (Gola Rainforest National Park 2019a)	Ongoing (2019)
11. Habitat Protection	11.2. Legally protect primate habitat	The site was designated as National Park in 2010 (Gola Rainforest National Park 2019b)	Since 2010
12. Species Management
13. Livelihood; Economic & Other Incentives	13.2. Provide non-monetary benefits to local communities for sustainably managing their forest and its wildlife (e.g. better education, infrastructure development)	RSPB is developing a REDD+ project which aims to provide funds for the long-term management of the site and support local people in the sustainable management of resources (RSPB 2019)	Ongoing (2019)

Conservation activities list (Junker et al. 2017)

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Gola Rainforest National Park

Challenge	Source
Lack of technical means	Brncic et al. 2010

Research activities

Several surveys have been done at the site to monitor wildlife and estimate species abundances (e.g., Brncic et al. 2010, Klop et al. 2008, Davies et al. 2008), and the nest ecology of chimpanzees has also been studied at the site (Barca et al. 2018).

Documented behaviours

Table 6. Great ape behaviors reported for Gola Rainforest National Park

Behavior	Source
Not reported

References

Barca, B., Turay, B.S., Kanneh, B.A., Tayleur, C. 2018. Nest ecology and conservation of Western Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Gola Rainforest National Park, Sierra Leone. Primate Conservation (32): 133-139.
BirdLife International. 2018. Eat chocolate, save a rainforest - the Gola Cocoa Project tells you how. Online: https://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/news/eat-chocolate-save-rainforest-gola-cocoa-project-tells-you-how
BirdLife International. 2019a. Important Bird Areas factsheet: Gola Forests. Downloaded from datazone.birdlife.org on 05/07/2019.
BirdLife International. 2019b. Forests of Hope site - Gola Rainforest National Park, Sierra Leone. Online: www.birdlife.org
Brncic, T.M., Amarasekaran,B. & McKenna,A. 2010. Final Report of the Sierra Leone National Chimpanzee Census Project. Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Davies, Glyn & Schulte-Herbruggen, Bjorn & Kümpel, Noëlle & Mendelson, Samantha. (2008). Hunting and Trapping in Gola Forests, South-Eastern Sierra Leone: Bushmeat from Farm, Fallow and Forest. 10.1002/9780470692592.ch1.
Gola Rainforest National Park. 2019a The Gola Rainforest Conservation Centre (GRCC). Online: https://www.golarainforest.org/conservation-center
Gola Rainforest National Park. 2019b. Online: https://www.golarainforest.org/about
Klop, E., Lindsell, J.A. & Siaka, A. 2008. Biodiversity of Gola Forest, Sierra Leone. Unpublished Report. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Sandy, UK, and Conservation Society of Sierra Leone, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Lindsell, J. A., Klop, E. and Siaka, A. 2011. The impact of civil war on forest wildlife in West Africa: mammals in Gola Forest, Sierra Leone. Oryx 45:69–77.
RSPB. 2019. The Gola Rainforest: Sierra Leone's first rainforest national park. Online: https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/conservation/projects/gola-rainforest-sierra-leones-first-rainforest-national-park/
UNESCO. Gola Rainforest National Park. Online: https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5747/

Page completed by: A.P.E.S. Wiki Team Date: 02/09/2019