President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has submitted
to the House of Representatives a legislation seeking the enactment into law of An Act to Establish the Gola Forest National Park.
She said the legislation, which also seeks to designate and conserve the Gola Forest as a National Park, was made necessary by current global conservation concerns such as the alarming rate of deforestation around the world.
According to the Liberia News Agency, President Sirleaf, in a letter to House Speaker J. Alexander Tyler dated February 19 and read in session Tuesday, disclosed that surveys of the biodiversity of the Gola Forest have revealed its unique place among the world’s biodiversity hotspots.
The President narrated that apart from the presence of species like elephants, chimpanzees and pygmy hippos in the forest, research has discovered three plant species, 13 dragonflies and butterfly species, one frog and possibly one mammal species, all new to Science.
Sirleaf mentioned that Liberia also currently contain a significant amount of biodiversity of over 2, 900 different vascular plants, including 225 tree species, 600 bird species, 150 mammal species, 75 reptile species and over 100 insect species, and accounts for the largest remaining forests that constitute 42 percent of the Upper Guinea Forest of West Africa.
According to the Liberia leader, the legislation is in harmony with the National Forestry Law of 2006, and other legislations governing Liberia’s forest, adding that the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) shall oversee all activities relating to the Park.
Following the reading of the letter, Plenary forwarded it to the House Committees on Judiciary and Agriculture for scrutiny with the mandate to report in two weeks.