Cacao plantations in Liberia encroach into proposed Kwa national park
A cocoa boom in southeast Liberia is wiping out native forests and encroaching into a proposed national park. The would-be Kwa National Park, a dense tropical rainforest, is home to chimpanzees, forest elephants, pygmy hippos and pangolins. Kwa is partly located in Grand Gedeh county, one of the most densely forested regions in southeast Liberia. […]
A cocoa boom in southeast Liberia is threatening to destroy native forests and encroach upon a proposed national park, according to a report by Mongabay. The Kwa National Park, a dense tropical rainforest, is home to various endangered species such as chimpanzees, forest elephants, pygmy hippos, and pangolins. Located in the forested Grand Gedeh county, the park spans 1,720 square kilometers (664 square miles), but commercial agriculture is prohibited within its boundaries.
Despite this, forest rangers from Liberia's Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and community eco-guards have reported discovering illegal cocoa plantations inside the park. Much of the surrounding forest has already been cleared for cacao by local inhabitants. According to George Bowey, a community eco-guard with the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation, cocoa plantations have been growing closer to the park since the end of 2023.
During a recent patrol, Bowey guided Mongabay reporter Ashoka Mukpo through the dense canopy of the Kwa National Park to a massive 100-hectare (250-acre) cacao plantation filled with decaying trees and waist-high cacao saplings. Further along their journey back to a ranger camp, Mukpo and Bowey noticed additional cacao plantations within the park, all showing signs of burnt trees.
The second method of growing cacao involves pouring gasoline at the base of trees and setting their roots ablaze, effectively killing the trees to make way for cacao cultivation.
Written by urgent.news from Mongabay's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
