Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
Sapo National Park is located in south-east Liberia, some 70 km inland from the coastal town of Greenville. The park is an area of moist lowland rainforest, composed of 63% primary and mature secondary forest, 13% swamp-forest, 13% seasonally inundated forest and 11% young secondary forest. The terrain is undulating and low-lying, although Mount Putu in the north-east reaches 310 m and the steep ridges of the north reach 400 m. The park is drained in the west by the Sinoe river (or Pahneh Creek), which forms part of the western boundary, and the Dugbe river in the south-east.
See Box and Tables 2 and 3 for key species.
Non-bird biodiversity: Mammals include Pan troglodytes (EN), Procolobus verus (LR/nt), Procolobus badius (LR/nt), Colobus polykomos (LR/nt), Cercopithecus diana (VU), Liberiictis kuhni (EN), Loxodonta africana (EN), Hexaprotodon liberiensis (VU), Cephalophus jentinki (VU), Tragelaphus euryceros (LR/nt) and Syncerus caffer (LR/cd).
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
The area was declared a National Park in 1983. Although there are no permanent human settlements in the park, hunting pressure is thought to be high. There were at least two major encroachments into the park before the civil war, one by a logging company in 1985 and another by farmers in 1986. Fish poisoning using timber-treatment chemicals has been reported. The area had escaped commercial logging before the war because the timber was considered largely to be low grade. Since the end of the war illegal logging has, however, been occurring, as has alluvial gold mining. However, this is no guarantee that there will not be pressure for logging concessions in the future.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Sapo (Liberia). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/sapo-iba-liberia on 23/12/2024.
