News Wire
How a major conservation programme in Africa will impact on our birds
PROTECTING THE LIBERIAN rainforest hasn’t exactly been a walk in the park, but for Nicolas Tubbs, tropical forest conservation manager for the RSPB, perseverance and patience have finally paid off. Working in partnership with the Society for the Conservation of Nature Liberia, Nicolas and his RSPB team have overseen the transformation of the Gola National Forest reserve into a new, fully-fledged National Park. “We’ve been working on it for the best part of 26 years now,” says Nicolas, who has just returned to the UK from his latest trip to Africa. The process has at times, he says, been ‘challenging’. “It gets confusing sometimes”, he says, speaking of the transboundary nature of the Upper Guinea Forest. “The forest sits on both sides of the border, so there are pieces of the puzzle in Liberia, and other pieces in Sierra Leone. There are about 350,000 hectares of forest, all of it absolutely amazing for biodiversity.” It’s that biodiversity that makes the area so valuable; more than 300 species of bird call the new National Park home, along with in excess of 600 butterfly species and nearly 50 species of large mammal. But the creation of the National Park will have a much wider impact: “Deforestation is one of the biggest threats facing migratory birds,” he adds. The work Nicolas’s team are doing in Gola goes a long way towards protecting international species, including a Uk-ringed Cuckoo found in the outskirts of the rainforest. More than this, though, protecting the area will hopefully reduce the carbon emissions caused by forest degradation and have a positive impact on climate change. “What people don’t realise”, Nicolas continues, “is that what we do is at the nexus of conservation and development. We’re working hand in hand with the government and local communities to provide direct social benefits through agriculture, savings and loan schemes and also environmental education,” he added. The Presidents of Liberia and Sierra Leone have been very supportive, according to Nicolas, and the project was keen to make sure that best international practices are followed. “We follow what we call the FPIC principle, that is that those affected by the creation of the National Park had free and prior informed consent before work was commenced. We wanted to know that local communities, who are quite disenfranchised and largely illiterate, really understood what they were signing up to.” He added that there was still huge task ahead, referring to the need for a good management structure, staffing, and, importantly, continued funding. “We’ve got some funding from the Rainforest Trust, and we’re hoping to access further EU funding. Success comes from managing the area efficiently and delivering conservation. We are going to make sure that this is more than just a paper park.”
The work in Gola goes a long way towards protecting international species, including a Uk-ringed Cuckoo found in the rainforest