One of Africa's two major lowland rain forest regions (see White 1983), the Upper Guinea forest originally covered most of Sierra Leone, south-east Guinea, Liberia, southern Ivory Coast and south-west Ghana, but much of this area is now deforested. The restricted-range species are mainly confined to the lowland rain forests of Upper Guinea, although one ranges up to 1,550 m in the Guinea highlands.

The distribution and status of the birds of the Upper Guinea forests are generally rather poorly known, although recent survey work has generated much new information (Allport 1991, Demey and Fishpool 1991, Francis et al. 1992, Thompson 1993, Wood 1993, Atkinson et al. 1994b, Fishpool et al. 1994, Gartshore et al. 1995). Phyllastrephus leucolepis, Melaenornis annamarulae and Malimbus ballmanni were all described as new to science in the past 25 years, and at least two undescribed bird species are suspected to occur in the EBA (Allport 1991).

All the species endemic to the Upper Guinea forest are here considered to have restricted ranges, because, although the forest originally covered several hundred thousand square kilometres, this area was already much reduced when ornithological exploration began, and few (if any) of the species appear to occur throughout the region (see Hall and Moreau 1970, Snow 1978). Many of these species are known from scattered records in most countries of the EBA, but Phyllastrephus leucolepis, Melaenornis annamarulae and Malimbus ballmanni (see Gatter and Gardner 1993) appear to be limited to the wet/dry mosaic forests in the west, in western Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea; Phyllastrephus leucolepis is only known from a single locality in Liberia, where it has been found in the transitional zone between evergreen and semi-deciduous tropical rain forest (Allport 1991).

Prinia leontica has rather different habitat requirements from the other species, being associated with gallery forest in the Guinea highlands in the EBA's north-west, at 500-1,550 m. Two of the restricted-range species appear not to be entirely confined to the EBA: Criniger olivaceus is known by one nineteenth-century record from Senegal and anomalous records from south-west Mali (Lamarche 1980-1981) and Illadopsis rufescens has been recorded from Senegal and Togo (Dowsett and Forbes-Watson 1993). Note that the species limits and distribution of Bleda eximia follow those of Chappuis and Erard (1993).

Allport (1991) estimated that c.77% of the EBA's original forest has been lost, mainly as a result of logging, agricultural encroachment and mining; the less than 80,000 km² of forest which remains is being rapidly degraded and fragmented. Current threats are logging and agricultural encroachment, and rates of forest loss are probably still increasing, with most forest outside protected areas (including forest reserves) likely to disappear within the next 25 years (N. D. Burgess in litt. 1993). In Liberia, the civil war continues to devastate the remaining forests and threatens Sapo National Park, as uncontrolled logging for export has been carried out to pay for troops and arms, and food shortages have led to large-scale hunting for food (M. E. J. Gore in litt. 1993). Eleven restricted-range birds are threatened, principally because of the continuing loss of their habitat. A more-widespread threatened species which occurs in the EBA is Yellow-footed Honeyguide Melignomon eisentrauti (classified as Vulnerable).

The protected areas within the EBA are concentrated in the two most important areas of surviving forest (see IUCN 1992b). Those in south-east Liberia and south-west Ivory Coast include Taï National Park (the largest and best-preserved area of Upper Guinea forest: Francis et al. 1992, Gartshore et al. 1995), Marahoué National Park, Yapo forest and N'zo Fauna Reserve in Ivory Coast (R. Demey in litt. 1993), and Grebo, Gio and Krahn–Bassa National Forests and Sapo National Park in Liberia. Some forests of south-east Sierra Leone and north-west Liberia are protected in Gola Forest Reserves in Sierra Leone and the Gola-Kpelle-Belle National Forest in Liberia (Allport 1991). The forests on Mount Nimba are protected in strict nature reserves in Guinea and Ivory Coast, but the Liberian section of this mountain is unprotected. In Sierra Leone, Western Area, Loma Mountain, Tingi Hills and Kangari Hills Forest Reserves and Tiwai Island Game Sanctuary are important for several restricted-range species, including Prinia leontica which occurs in the Loma Mountain and Tingi Hills reserves (P. Wood in litt. 1993; see Davies and Palmer 1989).

Stattersfield, A. J., Crosby, M. J., Long, A. J. and Wege, D. C. (1998) Endemic Bird Areas of the World. Priorities for biodiversity conservation. BirdLife Conservation Series 7. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International.

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Endemic Bird Area factsheet: Upper Guinea forests. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/eba/factsheet/80 on 22/12/2024.