Western Area Peninsula National Park
8°20′26″N 13°9′28″W / 8.34056°N 13.15778°W
Western Area Forest Reserve, also known as the Western Area Peninsula Forest Reserve,[1][2] is a non-hunting forest reserve in Sierra Leone. The area became a forest reserve in 1916 and has an area of 17,688 hectares (68.29 sq mi).[2][3] It was demarcated by Charles Lane Poole, Sierra Leone's first ever 'Conservator of Forests,' and founder of the Sierra Leonean Forestry Department.[4] It is the westernmost semi-deciduous closed canopy forest in Sierra Leone.[2] The forest is home to various endangered species, including a wide variety of endangered birds[5] and Duiker.[6]
Despite its preserve status, the reserve has experienced devastating deforestation, predominantly due to urban encroachment and related activities, a trend only exasperated by the civil war.[7]
There have been proposals to upgrade the reserve's status to a national park,[1][8] and it is listed on some maps as the "Western Area National Park". Its status appears to remain "proposed".[9]
Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary
The Reserve is home to the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary which was founded in 1995[10] by Bala Amarasekaran, seven years after he and his wife Sharmila saw a baby chimpanzee for sale by the roadside north of the capital Freetown. The couple bought the chimpanzee for $30 and soon discovered that many other chimpanzees are kept as pets and often mistreated. The sanctuary cares for these abused, orphaned and abandoned animals and offers them a new home, and as capacity becomes stretched, also educates among Sierra Leoneans about protecting chimpanzees in the wild. More than 2,000 local rural school children visit the 100 acres (40 ha) site every year.[11]
References
- ^ a b United Nations Development Programme
- ^ a b c World Wildlife Fund, [1]
- ^ World Database on Protected Areas: Information Sheet, UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre, retrieved on 9 November 2007
- ^ Dargavel, John (2008) The zealous conservator: a life of Charles Lane Poole, University of Western Australia Press
- ^ Bird Life International
- ^ Rod East, Part 3 of Antelopes: Global Survey and Regional Action Plans, 1990, page 45. ISBN 2-8317-0016-7
- ^ Munro, P.G. (2009). "Deforestation: constructing problems and solutions on Sierra Leone's Freetown Peninsula" (PDF). Journal of Political Ecology. 16: 104–122. ISSN 1073-0451. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
{{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ United Nations Development Programme, Protected Areas.org
- ^ World Database on Protected Areas
- ^ The Sanctuary Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary (2007), retrieved on 9 November 2007
- ^ Manson, Katrina (June 2010). "Playing Safe". The Voyager (BMI magazine). Retrieved 12 May 2010.
See also
External links
- Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary website - tacugama.com
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