Save 2000 chimpanzees in West Africa

This year, we kick-started our activities by re-training our team of Community Eco-guards to support the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) in patrolling the new proposed Grebo-Krahn National Park (previously called Grebo-Forest National Park) in Liberia. The workshop helped the Community Eco-guards to refresh and refine their field skills, i.e. learning to navigate efficiently in the tropical forest, collecting data and planning patrols. Over 4 days, the WCF and FDA trainers taught lessons on animal species identification, methodology, navigation and equipment usage. This was then followed by a practical session to put what they had learnt into practice. After the training, the Community Eco-guards were tested to ensure they had taken on board all that was demonstrated over the 4 days. Now that they have completed the training, the Community Eco-guards are preparing for their first mission in the proposed national park. During the 2-week mission, the Community Eco-guards, supervised by FDA and WCF, patrol a minimum of 40 km across the national park, targeting known threatened areas with illegal human activities. They collect precise data on any threats to wildlife and forest they cross, such as gold-mining sites, bush-meat hunting tents, or illegal harvesting of forest products such as chewing sticks and then relay the information back to the local authorities, the FDA. FDA can then use this detailed data to lead targeted law enforcement missions in the future, which means they do not lose their time searching for the threats, but rather know prior to the mission where they have to aim for. This approach has proven to be very effective for the conservation of the proposed Grebo-Krahn National Park and is helping to protect the local wildlife. It also encourages the local communities to take an active role in the protection of the wildlife and their forest home. We hope that you will continue to support these efforts in protecting some of West Africa’s last tropical rainforest!