Top: Participants at the Grebo-Krahn project relaunch in Ziah City. The DayLight/Esau J. Farr, Sr.
By Esau J. Farr, Sr.
ZIAH CITY, Grand Gedeh County – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) has relaunched a multipurpose project for the Grebo-Krahn National Park. The 4.7 million Euros (US$5.4m) project is called the Tai-Grebo-Krahn Complex Biodiversity Protection Project, meant to manage the park.
The German government is funding the project through the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (WCF) in Liberia, a conservation NGO. The scheme was approved in 2017 by the German Development Bank (KfW) valued at 6 million Euros.
“We hope that this project can finally address some of the issues that have been coming from the park since its establishment nine years ago,” said Wild Chimpanzee Foundation’s Country Director, Dr. Annika Hillers, at the project’s relaunch in Ziah City, Grand Gedeh County. “It will bring a lot of relief to FDA, the partners, and most of all, the development of local community members.”
The three-year plan focuses on communities’ benefits. It targets roads to connect communities around the park, and offices for the FDA to support regular monitoring. It intends to train over 300 people, employ locals, and introduce animal farming and local savings clubs.
The project also targets the construction of schools, medical facilities and hand pumps, and 150 solar street lights for communities adjacent to the park.
The FDA’s Deputy Managing Director for Community, Conservation and Carbon, Nora Bowier, encouraged locals to own it.
“You need to own it because if it succeeds, we all succeed, and if it fails, we all fail,” Bowier said. “We listened to all your concerns and interests and we are going to look into them to try and address them to the degree we can.”
Thomas Yaya Nimely, the Senator of Grand Gedeh County, said locals were willing to help the government protect the forest.
“Our concern is that our citizens have been keeping this forest for generations and as you have come for it, we want to know what benefits this project will bring to them?”
History and biodiversity
The Grebo-Krahn National Park was established in 2017 through a partnership of the FDA and Wild Chimpanzee Foundation. Its establishment was part of the government’s efforts to preserve a portion of its forest in line with the Paris Agreement.
The 97,136-hectare forest runs from Grand Gedeh through River Gee into the Tai-Grebo area near the Ivorian border. The area hosts several wildlife species, including forest elephants, chimpanzees and the pygmy hippopotamus.
Additionally, it has 300 known animal species and 270 plant species, highlighting its environmental significance. The region has also been designated as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International, the world’s leading global partnership dedicated to the conservation of birds and their habitats.
An environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) is expected soon, after which road construction will begin.
