A REBUTTAL TO HON. THOMAS ROMEO QUIOH’S PROPOSAL FOR THE DE-GAZETTEMENT OF THE PARK
Introduction
I strongly oppose the de-gazettement of Sapo National Park as proposed by Hon. Thomas Romeo Quioh of Sinoe County District No.1. It is indeed glaring that the answers to the numerous concerns raised by him including no or low benefits from the Park are rooted in sound governance. The near utter neglect of the Park by government and the resultant institutional weakness are historical. From 1960-68 the defunct West Germany had carried out the most comprehensive forest inventory in Liberia since the founding of the Republic. Based on the findings of the inventory, national forests or forest reserves such as Gola National Forest, Krahn-Bassa Forest, Gbi Forest and other national forests were demarcated while national parks/protected areas were only proposed. The focus was on logging then. However, the government of the day managed to create Sapo National Park (SNP) in 1983, a decade after the inventory without effective governance structure in place. This exactly has been the narrative of the Park – no functional governance – exacerbated by appointments of laymen as Managing Directors of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) in post-conflict Liberia government in government out due to patronage politics. Any forest that is gazetted and left undeveloped and/or poorly managed would not yield benefits. As such, one thought Representative Quioh would have used his lofty office plus expert knowledge to address Sapo National Park’s age-old management issues. Instead, he has chosen to propose its “partial or full de-gazettement”. In stark contrast, it is argued here that the solutions to the challenges highlighted in his proposal are premised on good governance.
The Role of Sapo National Park in Biodiversity Conservation
Liberia is the most naturally forested country in West Africa, as more than 40% of its landscape is covered with the tropical rainforest. One of such forest ecosystems is the SNP which has a dual status; i.e. a national park and also a block in the Tai–Grebo-Kranh – Sapo conservation corridor between Ivory Coast and Liberia. It is also a riparian forest, as it protects the Sinoe and Dugbeh Rivers flowing through it, beginning from their catchment areas all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. In short, the immeasurable environmental services provided by this ecosystem include regulation of precipitation, temperatures, and sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide to cushion the adverse effects of global warming.
Iconic Species Sheltered by Sapo National Park
There are two species of African elephants – savannah and forest elephants. The savannah species (Loxodonta africana) is larger than its cousin in the forest. Botswana has the largest elephant population in the world – over 700, 000 savannah elephants according to CITES. In terms of the forest species (L. cyclotis), Gabon has the largest population followed by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Brazzaville Congo respectively; Liberia has the highest number of forest elephants in West Africa (IUCN, 2021). SNP shelters a significant number of the elephants. It is also home to Choeropsis liberiensis (Pygmy hippo) as well as this timber species Tetraberlinia tubmaniana (Tetra). ThePygmy hippo and Tetra are endemic to Liberia. The pygmy hippo is endangered, Tetra is vulnerable while the elephants are threatened according to studies. Therefore, they are protected or listed on International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Redlist and CITES Appendices.
Protected but Underdeveloped
No protected area generates revenue as well as other relevant benefits when it is not developed. According to Hon. Quioh, “There has been no meaningful stream of direct government revenue that has ever come out of [the Park] since its gazettement in 1983.” He alludes to lack of functional governance of the Park since its inception. What is good governance? It is an effective public management that is built on the principles of accountability, transparency, rule of law, while encouraging citizen participation to ensure success and sustainability. Hence, instead of “stoning” the poor natural heritage which has long been in dire need of development for not meeting expectations, let us first ask the Executive Mansion and FDA as to what has been their vision/practical management plan for it since its creation 42 years on. With a pragmatic governance system in place, not government’s abandonment of their responsibilities to donors/NGOs, the basic sign of government’s seriousness would have been asphalt roads leading to southeastern Liberia or to this crucial protected forest ever since. Also adequate and competent staff, ecolodges/holiday camps, trails, monkey bridges, sports canoeing facilities, research centers, tree towers, and natural history museums would have been seen throughout Sapo National Park. Not lip-service development. These are also required for all protected areas across the country. In short, a forest gazetted but neglected cannot be on the same level with Kruger National Park (KNP) in South Africa, Hwange National Park (HNP) in Zimbabwe, and Tai National Park (TNP) in Ivory Coast in terms of revenue generation. Just a glimpse of massive revenues from protected areas, KNP generated US$113.7 million in revenue almost from tourism alone in 2023/2024 fiscal year; TNP collected US$14 million as tourist fees in 2024; while in HNP park-supported initiatives generated US$4.9 million for local communities and US$102 million in local procurement (www. africanparks, org). Therefore, it is crystal clear that SNP yearns for a visionary, serious administrative intervention, not a proposal which is a potential scheme of deforestation and plunder of its solid minerals.
Potential Benefits of Developed Sapo National Park
To begin with, a developed SNP should have a well-constructed, furnished and equipped headquarters as opposed to the makeshift headquarters there, and sufficient and well-equipped staff who should be visible throughout the over 160,000 hectares covered by the Park. SNP is divided into three management zones, each zone with its own sub-office or headquarters. At present it is only zone 1 that receives management attention principally because of staff shortfall. A properly managed Sapo National Park will have all the facilities aforementioned and, as a third party’s effect, fringe community unemployment will be significantly reduced and local revenue generation base broadened, as many more community residents are likely to work as tour guards, rangers, research assistants while the cottage industry will boom. At the national level, “meaningful stream of direct government revenue” will begin to flow from east to west. Herein lies the magic formula – the solutions to concerns raised by Representative Quioh. Obviously, the most critical part of the magic formula is a paved Monrovia-Harper Highway, which is now in the offing. With the highway completely paved, it will certainly serve as an impetus for the long-awaited development of the Park.
Challenges of Forest Governance in Liberia
The challenges of forest resource governance particularly Sapo National Park has been exacerbated in this 21st century by the Executive Mansion’s continuous appointments of non-foresters in violation of the Forestry Development Authority Act Section No. 7, which provides that for an individual to be qualified as Managing Director of FDA, he/she “shall be professionally qualified in Forestry.” And it is important to remember that one of the ingredients of effective governance is rule of law, which has been categorically disrespected as successive managing directors’ appointments have been influenced by cronyism, not merit. Contrary to a “political forester” at the helm of affairs at the FDA, someone appointed according to Section No. 7 of the Act would step into the FDA headquarters with a blueprint for managing our national forests and protected areas. He/she would immediately seek an opportunity to present a strategic management plan to the legislators in order to convince them to increase funding to the forest sector which, of course, will include funds for the Park’s development. This a “political forester” or layman will not be able to do because one cannot give what one does not have; i.e. a square peg will never fit in a round hole no matter how much energy is exerted to force it in.
Similarly, Van der Kraaij (1983) in the 1940s government dealt with its own challenge of lack of manpower in Forestry by sending Mr. Stephen A. Tolbert to the United States in 1945 on a public scholarship to study Forestry; he returned in 1948 with an M.A. in Forestry and became Director of the National Forest Service, one of the precursors of the FDA, and eventually recorded by history as Liberia’s first forester. Seventy-seven (77) years later in today’s Liberia, with over forty (40) M.Sc. holders and five Ph.D. holders in Forestry, anyone other than a trained forester can be Managing Director of FDA. The question of the century: Is Liberia regressing in forestry development or progressing? The answer is boldly on the wall.
FDA’s Long Silence in the Debate
In this de facto national debate, Hon. Quioh has somewhat challenged relevant organizations/agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), FDA, and civil society organizations (CSOs) inter alia, stressing, “As a lawmaker, my role is to initiate broad [conversations] that engender consultations with [stakeholders].” Mr. Saah David set the pace with his outright rejection of the proposal, followed by EPA’s and Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia (SCNL)’s strong science-based arguments against the de-gazettement of the Park. But strangely, FDA, the agency de jure tasked with managing our forest resources and regulating their use, did not deem it a matter of duty to step forward in time to provide guidance until after 31 days. That is, the proposal became public knowledge on July 30, 2025 but the FDA management broke its silence on September 1, 2025! Why did the management choose to be quiet for such a long time in this critical national debate? Your guess is as good as mine.
Liberia’s other international commitments
There are many international agreements signed by Liberia which would be breached with the “partial or full de-gazettement” of Sapo National Park, a considerable number of which have already been mentioned by the previous opponents of the proposal. As such, I would like to highlight only two which are linked directly to the Park: (1) African Elephants Coalition (AEC) and (2) Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The AEC, headquartered at Nairobi, Kenya, has a membership of 32 elephant range states. Over 185 countries are signatories to CITES. Ironically, the Park is home to two of CITES flagship species – the forest elephant and pygmy hippo – all of which are endangered species and therefore listed on CITES Appendices as well as IUCN Redlist. Interestingly, the CITES Conference of the Parties (CoP20) takes place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan from 24 November to 5 December 2025. Liberia will send a delegation to the CoP. Of course, the AEC member states will be at the CoP20 as all of them are CITES members.
Conclusion
For two decades and a half now, Liberia has been in the spotlights of biodiversity conservation and climate change science thanks to its vast forests which set it aside as the most biodiversity–rich area in West Africa and a country with huge potential for forest carbon trade. Consequently it is nicknamed “biodiversity hotspots.” Hence, the country cannot afford to shift from this enviable conservation status to a “biodiversity notorious hotspot” and an unprecedented carbon source in the West African subregion, as suggested by the proposal to either allow partial or full-fledged extractive activities in Sapo National Park. That is what a society gets when it fails to use its experts because of narrow interests. All in all, improved governance of the nation’s premier protected area is the way forward.
Recommendations
- All poachers occupying the Park should be evicted by national security operatives.
- The current FDA Managing Director (MD) should be removed and replaced with a person who is “professionally qualified in Forestry”, for a professional forester as FDA MD should come up with a Strategic Ten-year Management Plan for all protected areas including the SNP. Henceforth no non-forester should head FDA.
- Based on the FDA MD’s Management Plan/proposal to the Senate and House Committees on Agriculture and Forestry, funding for the Park should be increased to facilitate the Park’s development.
- The strength of manpower should be increased so that all the three zones of the Park will be managed/protected effectively.
- The Park warden should be at least an M.Sc holder and other staff (law enforcement rangers, community engagement rangers, and park biologists should be at least B.Sc. holders. This should apply to all protected areas in the country.
- A memorandum of understanding (MoU) must be signed with national security agencies – ERU and AFL with phase-out periods – aimed at arming the Park law enforcement rangers. All over the world protected areas law enforcement officers are armed because poachers or natural resources traffickers are always armed. This should also apply to all protected areas in the country.
- All roads leading to the Park such as Buchanan–Greensville, Ganta-Harper, and Zwedru-Greensville Highways should be paved, and trails and conservation roads should be constructed throughout the three zones of the Park. Roads that cannot be paved now must be regularly maintained to make them motorable all year round.
- Tourist visas should be issued on arrival when the Monrovia-Harper Highway is completely paved.
References
- F.P.M. van der Kraaij (1983). The Open Door Policy of Liberia: An Economic History of Modern Liberia. Published by Reihe F Bremer Afrika Archive Band 17/1, Im Selbstverlag des Museum, Germany. Pp. Pp. 261, 268, 266.
- iucnredlist. org/es/Search?=elephants&searchType=species. Accessed. Sept. 09, 2025.
- www.africanparks.org. Sept. 7, 2025.
About the author
Johnson Jlokpeh Geply, Ph.D., ITTO Fellow
Assistant Professor, CITES Scientific Authority for Liberia
and Chairman
Department of Forestry, University of Liberia
