The National Park of Upper Niger is a recently gazetted national park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

 in Guinea

Guinea

Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...

 in northwestern Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. The park covers around 6000 square km of in the north-eastern area of the country, of which 600 square km comprise the core area. The park protects important tracts of forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

 and savanna

Savanna

A savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of C4 grasses.Some...

h, and is considered a conservation

Conservation biology

Conservation biology is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction...

 priority for West Africa

West Africa

West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

 as a whole.

History

Areas of low human impact are comparatively rare now in Guinea, and found only in areas of low population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

. One such area is that of the Mafou Forest, the last remaining area of dry forest in Guinea and one of the few left in West Africa. This area has a low population because of the widespread incidences of river-blindness

Onchocerciasis

Onchocerciasis , also known as river blindness and Robles' disease, is a parasitic disease caused by infection by Onchocerca volvulus, a nematode . Onchocerciasis is the world's second-leading infectious cause of blindness. It is not the nematode, but its endosymbiont, Wolbachia pipientis, that...

 and as a result of the atrocities of Samory Touré

Samori

Samory Toure was the founder of the Wassoulou Empire, an Islamic state that resisted French rule in West Africa from 1882 until his capture in 1898.-Early life and career:...

 in the latter part of the 19th century. The area has been little disturbed in the last 50 years.
The park comprises two zones, a core protected zone and a buffer zone in which local people are encouraged to use the resources of the part in a sustainable way. Farming and the collecting of non-timber forest products is permitted. The government manages fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

, hunting

Hunting

Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...

 and timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

 harvesting in cooperation with local communities.

Ecology of the park

The park covers several ecological zones, the dominant is that of savannah, consisting of woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

 and bushland

Bushland

Bushland is any area in Australia that is predominantly indigenous flora and fauna.Bushland is the term commonly used by conservation protection groups and other environmental groups as a blanket term for natural vegetation, which may cover any kind of habitat from open shrubby country with few...

. A smaller area of the park consists of riparian forests along the Niger

Niger River

The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...

 and Mafou Rivers. Around five percent of the park is agricultural, along the edges of the park. The park is subject to frequent fires during the dry season

Dry season

The dry season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year...

.

Fauna of the park

Surveys of the park have shown a diverse mammalian and avian fauna. Over 94 species of mammals have been found in the park, and more can be inferred. Important species found in the park include Giant Pangolin

Giant Pangolin

The Giant Pangolin is a pangolin species. Members of the species inhabit Africa with a range stretching along the equator from west Africa to Uganda. The Giant Pangolin is the largest species of pangolin, or "scaly anteaters" – the large, scaled mammals belonging to the Manidae family. It...

s, West African Chimpanzee

Common Chimpanzee

The common chimpanzee , also known as the robust chimpanzee, is a great ape. Colloquially, the common chimpanzee is often called the chimpanzee , though technically this term refers to both species in the genus Pan: the common chimpanzee and the closely related bonobo, formerly called the pygmy...

s, Gambian Mongoose

Gambian Mongoose

The Gambian mongoose is widely distributed in the moist savannahs of north-western Africa, from Gambia to Nigeria.-Appearance:The Gambian mongoose is generally a brownish-grey color. They have a dark streak of fur on the sides of its light-colored neck. The short, tapered tail is not bushy. They...

s (a rare, endemic

Endemic (ecology)

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...

 species that seems to be well-represented in the park), Kob

Kob

The Kob is an antelope found across Sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal to South Sudan. Found along the Northern Savanna, often seen in Murchison Falls and Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda; Garamba and Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as grassy floodplains of...

, and Spot-necked Otters. Lion

Lion

The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...

s and African Manatee

African Manatee

The African manatee , also known as the West African manatee or seacow, is a species of manatee and is the most endangered of the four species of sirenians. Scientists think they are most similar to West Indian manatees...

s have also recently been confirmed. The African Elephant once existed in the park but is currently extinct there.

Threats to the park

There is a large trade in hunted animals from the park. At present this is carefully managed by park authorities, who feel that creating incentives for careful management of the resources is the best way to protect the forest as a whole. This is in line with current trends in community conservation.