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Background
- The Mole Park was established in 1958 as a Wildlife Reserve and gazetted as a national park in 1971. The park which is Ghana's largest protected area is home to key wildlife species and population, some of each globally endangered or threatened and as such, an important site for nature conservation and wild-life based tourism development in the country.
- Ghana submitted to UNESCO a request to consider the Park as a World Heritage Centre in 2016. The IUCN – International Union for Conservation of Nature - evaluation report requested more data on the wildlife and biodiversity, as the last animal census was conducted in 2006. In order to continue with the resubmission of the dossier to UNESCO, it will be necessary to conduct a wildlife census and to revise the park's management plan.
The Wildlife Census
- The Wildlife Census will be conducted by the company Bushskies from Namibia. The census will be carried out with the support of the staff from Mole Park, who will be prepared, through specific trainings to:
- Conduct a ground based wildlife census using life transect methods:
- Act as observers to conduct as traditional aerial wildlife census;
- Assess aerial imagery for a photographic aerial wildlife census;
- Use GIS methods to enhance organisation and management of spatial data collected by filed staff.
- The population survey will report on the following species: Elephants, Buffalos, Hartebeest, Roan Waterbuck, Kob, Duiker, Oribi, Bushbuck, Warthog, Baboon, Lion, Leopard and Spotted Hyena.
Biodiversity and citizens
- Biodiversity is the key indicator of the health of an ecosystem. A wide variety of species will cope better with threats than a limited number of them in large populations. Even if certain species are affected by pollution, climate change or human activities, the ecosystem as a whole may adapt and survive. But the extinction of a species may have unforeseen impacts, sometimes snowballing into the destruction of entire ecosystems.
- It is important to preserve our biodiversity and ecosystems and the awareness to this issue is crucial. People’s perceptions of biodiversity can vary a lot. Like ecosystem services, biodiversity is a subjective concept that can be understood differently by different people.
- Biodiversity is a hot and interesting topic for citizens all over the world. The conduction of a Wildlife Census at Mole Park is an excellent opportunity to report on the protection of biodiversity in Ghana and to produce information and data for International press and media.
The activities at Mole Park
- The activities at Mole Park will take place from 5thto 29thof March 2019 and include training of Mole Park Staff and an aerial and ground census.
- It is an excellent opportunity to collect images at the park and stories from people living close to and working at the park.
- In case you are interested in reporting on the activities, don’t hesitate to contact the European Union Delegation to Ghana.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Delegation of the European Union to Ghana.
