Sapo is Liberia’s only National Park, established in 1983. The park is 1,804 km2 and situated in Sinoe County, in the central-eastern part of Liberia. It is the second largest area of tropical primary rainforest in West Africa, after Taï National Park, which is situated just across the border in Côte d’Ivoire. There are plans to connect these two national parks, to create a wildlife corridor for all the West African rainforest mammals and birds that unfortunately have been living a dwindling existence here up until now, due to civil wars, legal and illegal logging and poaching.
Sapo is part of the Upper Guinean forest ecosystem, which is a biodiveristy hotspot. It has the highest mammal species diversity in the world – in Sapo alone there are 125, including several antelope species, monkeys, chimpanzees, leopards, as well as the endangered pygmy hippopotamus and the African forest elephant.
During the first and second civil war in Liberia (1989-1997 and 1999-2003, respectively), Sapo National Park had big problems with illegal logging, hunting and squatting of militia groups and refugees inside the park. Several park rangers were also killed when doing their job, trying to protect the integrity of the park.
Today the park is protected again, but underfunded. The squatters are gone and illegal logging has been stopped, but poaching is difficult to control, especially since the rangers are few, the area is remote and the infrastructure to and inside the park is very poor. But this also means that the park is wild, to a degree that few places on Earth are anymore, and if you can manage the cumbersome journey to get there, it is an incredible place to visit.
Katja Malmborg 