Friday 11 August 2017

Liberia Nature Talk


I attended the First Liberia Nature Talk with Haresh and a few other friends. The talk was held at the University of Liberia Auditorium, organised by Society for the Conservation of Nature. The lecture was given by Dr Annika Hillers. 

I really enjoyed learning about the unique hotspot that is Liberia which has the last remaining concentration of the Upper Guinea Rainforest. While the forests in Ghana, Ivory Coast and even Sierra Leone have gone, the majority of Liberia's landmass is under forest cover. 

The rain forest in Liberia has unique species that can only be found in this part of the world.

Scientific exploration of the Liberian rainforests only started in the 80s and was unfortunately halted because of the war. Scientific study and conservation re-started in 2010 or 2011 in the post war era. 

There is a vibrant community of international and local organisations involved in conservation. 

The FDA has technical support and assistance but still not enough resources to monitor, educate and implement the laws. The laws are good and unequivocally ban the hunting and killing of wildlife; keeping wildlife as pets, etc. But law enforcement and the technical agencies lack resources, manpower, training to actually implement the laws. Therefore, we see the unabashed sale of bushmeat and animals. It's even illegal to keep the grey parrot as a pet! 

Dr Hillers told us about some of the unique species that exist in Liberia including the Nimba Toad, Pygmy Hippo, etc. The Nimba Toad is unique to the Nimba Mountain range and in fact, only lives in 12 square kilometre area. It gives live birth and gestates for 9 months!

What is the real fate of Liberia's rainforests and biodiversity? Will Liberia's development agenda be sustainable? Will a conservationist be able to answer these questions? It was a great lecture but didn't tackle any of these questions.

This was the first of a series of planned talks so hopefully, future talks and discussions can explore this.




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