Marahoué National Park

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Marahoué National Park

IUCN Category II - National Park

The Marahoué River, lined with gallery forest

The Marahoué River, lined with gallery forest

location Ivory Coast
surface 1010 km²
WDPA ID 722
Geographical location 7 ° 6 '  N , 6 ° 2'  W Coordinates: 7 ° 5 '49 "  N , 6 ° 1' 32"  W
mark
Natural reserves of the Ivory Coast
Setup date 1968
administration Daloa, Office Ivoirien des Parcs et Réserves

The Marahoué National Park (French: Parc national de la Marahoué ) is located in the center of the Ivory Coast , west of the Kossoustau lake , at 90 to 320 m above sea level . It was established in 1956 as a game reserve and on February 9, 1968 as a national park and is 1010 km² in size. The nearest town is Bouaflé , the capital of the Marahoué region . The Yamoussoukro - Daloa main road forms part of the south-western border; the Marahoué River , which flows through the park to the north, forms part of the eastern border. The landscape is composed of valleys and hills and has an average height of 250 meters above sea level . The annual precipitation is 1100 mm, the annual mean temperature 25˚C to 28˚C.

vegetation

The park is located on the northern edge of the Upper Guinean Forest in the transition area between tropical rainforest and tree-lined savannah. In 1975 the area was divided into 60% dense forest, 15% degraded forest, 5% gallery forest and 17% mosaic of savannah and bushes; the remaining 3% of the park area was used for agriculture. In the 1990s it was 73% forest and 1% shrubland. Between 2002 and 2008, the park lost 93% of its forest cover in connection with the civil war in Ivory Coast . In 2014 there was no longer any dense forest, 12% of the park was degraded forest, 4% gallery forest, 67% savannah and shrubland, and 15% agricultural land.

The vegetation consists of gallery forest and partially deciduous forest in which abachi trees , various hackberry trees , khaya grandifolia , erythrophleum ivorense and limba trees predominate. Tree-lined savannah with Diospyros mespiliformis , Afzelia africana , Lophira lanceolata and Daniellia oliveri can be found especially in the eastern half . In 2016, 302 plant species were recorded in the national park, including Combretum zenkeri , Dialium guineense , Entandrophragma utile , Milicia excelsa and Triplochiton scleroxylon, as well as cocoa trees over 15 years old .

Wildlife

In addition to buffaloes , hippos , crocodiles, mongooses , hartebeests , bongos , duckers , waterbucks , kob and lyre antelopes , there are said to have been 50 elephants here in the 1980s . Many primate species such as the Diana cat , red colobus monkeys and white-naped specimens are represented. In 2007, the number of chimpanzees was estimated to be less than 50 and in 2012 there were no more chimpanzees in the park. Due to its great diversity of 287 bird species, the national park is an Important Bird Area .

Endangerment of the national park

Even before the establishment of the national park, at least 111 planters had created cocoa plantations and other cultivation areas within the area, which in 1975 made up around 3% of the park area. Agriculture, including slash and burn, and illegal logging resulted in the destruction or severe deterioration of vegetation in around a quarter of the park. Human impact has increased particularly in the vicinity of the eastern and northern park boundary, the population of neighboring villages and cities uses wood and game meat from the national park and illegal cocoa plantations are still being maintained. Poaching is a serious and widespread problem that has led to a reduction in antelope and primate populations. Pesticide exposure affects some of the marshes . At times there were around 50 illegal settlements within the park boundaries, in which up to 13,000 people lived.

Countermeasures

A development aid project as part of the nationwide, donor-funded program to improve the management of protected areas was carried out in Marahoué from 2001 to 2002 by Conservation International with financial support from the European Union under the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund , but due to the political unrest canceled in the country.

At the end of 2016, the Office Ivoirien des Parcs et Réserves began with relocation agreements and the evacuation of illegal settlements within the national park.

literature

  • Wally and Horst Hagen: The African national parks as habitats for elephants . In: Vitus B. Dröscher (Ed.): Save the elephants of Africa . 1st edition. Goldmann Verlag , Munich 1990, ISBN 3-442-12322-4 , p. 211 .
  • Geneviève Campbell, Hjalmar Kuehl, Paul N'Goran Kouamé, Christophe Boesch: Alarming decline of West African chimpanzees in Côte d'Ivoire . In: Current Biology . tape 18 , no. October 19 , 2008, doi : 10.1016 / j.cub.2008.08.015 (English).
  • Goh Denis: Le Parc national de la Marahoué: de la logique de conservation à la logique de predation . In: European Scientific Journal . tape 11 , no. 8 , 2015, p. 226–241 (French, paperity.org [accessed October 6, 2019]).
  • Yao Sadaiou Sabas Barima, Kouassi Apollinaire Kouakou, Akoua Tamia Madeleine Kouakou, Yao Charles Sangne: A Survey of the Floristic Diversity of the National Park of Marahoué after the Armed Conflicts in Ivory Coast . In: Open Journal of Forestry . tape 6 , July 14, 2016, p. 259–268 , doi : 10.4236 / ojf.2016.64021 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rebecca Carroll: Chimps 90 Percent Gone in a "Final Stronghold". In: National Geographic News. October 13, 2008, accessed October 6, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Gonedelé Bi Sery, Dietmar Zinner, Inza Koné, Zoro Goné Bi, Bertin Akpatou, JC Koffi Bené, Abdourahamane Sangaré and Christophe Boesch: A West African Black-and-White Colobus Monkey, Colobus polykomos dollmani , Facing Extinction . In: Primate Conservation . tape 21 , August 1, 2006, p. 55-61 , doi : 10.1896 / 0898-6207.21.1.55 (English).
  3. ↑ APES Wiki team: Marahoué National Park. December 4, 2018, accessed October 6, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Ruth Maclean: 'Once this was all trees, but they burned them to plant cocoa': the ruin of West Africa's rainforest. September 13, 2017, accessed October 6, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Conservation of Biodiversity in Marahoué National Park, Côte d'Ivoire. In: Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund. Retrieved October 6, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Deforestation threatens chimpanzees. Dramatic population decline in Ivory Coast. In: Scinexx. The knowledge magazine. October 15, 2008, accessed October 6, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Cécile Barbière, translated by Tim Steins: Illegal cocoa cultivation is destroying the forests of the Ivory Coast. In: Euractiv . January 23, 2018, accessed October 6, 2019 .