Mole National Park

Mole National Park is Ghana's largest wildlife refuge. The park is located in northwest Ghana on grassland savanna and riparian ecosystems at an elevation of 150 m, with sharp escarpment forming the southern boundary of the park. The park's entrance is reached through the nearby community of Larabanga. The Lovi and Mole Rivers are ephemeral rivers flowing through the park, leaving behind only drinking holes during the long dry season. This area of Ghana receives over 1000 mm per year of rainfall. A long-term study has been done on Mole National Park to understand the impact of human hunters on the animals in the preserve.

The park's lands were set aside as a wildlife refuge in 1958. In 1971 the small human population of the area was relocated and the lands were designated a national park. The park has not seen major development as a tourist location since its original designation. The park as a protective area is under funded and national and international concerns exist about poaching and sustainability in the park, but its protection of important resident antelope species has improved since its initial founding as a preserve.
The park is an important study area for scientists because of the removal of the human population from within the park allowing for some long-term studies, in particular, of relatively undisturbed sites compared to similar areas of densely populated equatorial West Africa. One study on the resident population of 800 elephants, for example, indicates that elephant damage to large trees varies with species. In Mole, elephants have a greater tendency to seriously injure economically important species such as Burkea africana, an important tropical hardwood, and Butyrospermum paradoxum, the source of shea butter, over the less important Terminalia spp

Tree species of the park include Burkea africana, Isoberlinia doka, and Terminalia macroptera. The savanna grasses are somewhat low in diversity but known species include a spikesedge, Kyllinga echinata, an Aneilema, Aneilema setiferum var. pallidiciliatum, and two endemic members of the Asclepiadaceae subfamily, the vine Gongronema obscurum, and the edible geophyte, Raphionacme vignei.

The park is home to over 93 mammal species, and the large mammals of the park include an elephant population, hippos, buffalo, and warthogs. The park is considered a primary African preserve for antelope species including kob, Defassa waterbuck, roan, hartebeest, oribi, the bushbuck, and two duikers, the red duiker and yellow-backed Duiker. Olive baboons, black-and-white colobus monkeys, the green vervet, and patas monkeys are the known species of monkeys resident in the park. Of the 33 known species of reptiles slender-snouted and dwarf crocodile are found in the park. Sightings of hyenas, lions and leopards are unusual, but these carnivores were once more common in the park. Among the 344 listed bird species are the martial eagle, the white-headed and palm-nut vultures, saddle-billed storks, herons, egrets, the Abyssinian roller, the violet turaco, various shrikes and the red-throated bee-eater.
Mole National Park, like other Ghanaian game preserves, is poorly funded for prevention of poaching. Poachers tend to live within 50 km of the boundaries of the park. This distance of 50 km is the reported greatest distance hunters were willing to travel with poached game. The remnant human population of the park was removed in 1961, leaving all game hunters outside of the reserve, meaning that mammal populations on the edges of the park are impacted more by hunting than interior populations.

Coordinates: 8° 17′ 59″ N, 2° 21′ 46″ W

Bui National Park is the third largest Wildlife Protected Area in the country. It covers 1,821km² and is bisected by the Black Volta. It is located in a typical woodland savanna zone in the Brong Ahafo and Northern Region of Ghana. It has spectacular gallery forests along rivers courses. The reserve is particularly notable for its resident Hippo population in the Black Volta. Primates like the endangered black and white colobus monkey and a variety of antelopes and birds are also present.

Digya-Nationalpark

Coordinates: 7° 22′ 0″ N, 0° 6′ 0″ W

The Digya National Park was gazetted in 1971 and covers an area of 3,478 km2 of undulating terrain with sandstone inselbergs. It is situated on the western shores of the Volta Lake. Guinea savanna woodland predominates with gallery forest along the major lines. The Park supports at least six primate species including black and white colobus, elephants and a variety of antelopes. Manatee and clawless otter are also reported to be present in the Park.

Ankasa-Nini-Suhien-Nationalpark

Coordinates: 5° 16′ 37″ N, 2° 34′ 4″ W

This was established in 1976, it covers an area of 490 sq. km. The vegetation of this place is evergreen rain forest and contains some exceptional botanical species like psychosis ankasensis which was discovered recently. Mammals found her include: forest elephant, bongo antelope, duiker, leopard civet cat, chimpanzee and several monkeys and a large number of birds.

Bia-Tawaya-National Park

Coordinates: 6° 28′ 0″ N, 3° 5′ 0″ W

Bia National Park is a national park in the Western Region of Ghana. It is also a biosphere reserve with a 563 square kilometer resource reserve. It has some of Ghana's last remnants of relatively untouched forest complete with its full diversity of wildlife. Some of the tallest trees left in West Africa are found in this national park.

Bia National Park is located near the Ivorian border, the Bia River, and its tributaries, which flow into the Cote d’ Ivoire drainage area. It is found in the transitional zone between moist-evergreen and moist semi-deciduous forest types. Access to the park from Kumasi is through Bibiani, Sefwi Wiawso to Sefwi Asempanaye or Goaso through Sankore to Sefwi Asempanaye. From Sunyani it can be reached through Brekum, Wanfi, Adabokrom and Debiso. From La Cote D’lvoire the park can be reached through Osei Kojokrom and Debiso.

Bia was created in 1935 and named after the Bia River which drains the area. It became an official national park in 1974. Intensive farming destroyed much of the original vegetation in the park. However since 1975, no human activities like farming or logging have taken place. In 1985 the park was named a biosphere reserve and a UNESCO world heritage site.

There are 62 species of mammals (including 10 primate species) known to live in the park, and over 160 species of birds, including the endangered white-breasted guinea fowl. The park is also the only known home of the newly discovered species of lizard, Agama sylvanus. Ghana's major protected forest antelope communities also live in the park.

Kakum-Nationalpark

Coordinates: 5° 25′ 0″ N, 1° 19′ 0″ W

Kakum and the Assin Attandanso reserves constitute a twin National Park and Resource Reserve. It was gazetted in 1991 and covers an area of about 350 km2 of the moist evergreen forest zone. The emergent trees are exceptionally high with some reaching 65 meters. The reserve has a varied wildlife with some 40 species of larger mammals, including elerpahnats, bongo, red riverhog, seven primates and four squirrels. Bird life is also varied. About 200 species are known to occur in the reserve and include 5 hornbil species, frazer-eagle owl, African grey and Senegal parrots. To date, over 400 species butterflies have been recorded. The Kakum National Park is about the most developed and subscribed eco-tourism site among the wildlife conservation areas.

Kogyae District Nature Reserve

Coordinates: 7° 11′ 0″ N, 1° 5′ 0″ W

Created in 1971 the Reserve comprises 32,400 hectares essentially destined for agricultural and botanical research. It is located in the Volta Region.

Gbele Game Reserve

Coordinates: 10° 30′ 0″ N, 2° 7′ 0″ W

Located near Tumu in the savanna of northwestern Ghana, the park occupies 54,690 hectares and contains a limited wildlife population.

This natural habitat for many speicies of the wildlife, as well as for number of migratory birds.Located on the Akropong road, some 16km west of Kumasi, the sanctuary is closed to car traffic but accessed by footpaths, and may be visited in the company of a guide.

Shai Hills Game Reserve

Coordinates: 5° 54′ 53″ N, 0° 2′ 51″ O

Created in 1974, the Shai Hills Game Reserve is a small wildlife sanctuary occupying over 5,180 hectares north of Tema in the Greater Accra Region.

To get here from Accra, take the Tema Expressway straight to the end, followed by the highway to Ho. On the right, just beyond the Shai Training Centre, the main entrance of the reserve leads to the building where visitors' passes are issued and the mandatory guides assigned.

Guides are not only obligatory, but also indispensable. As in Ghana's other wildlife parks and reserves, visits on foot are both recommended and encouraged. But only a trained guide, perfectly familiar with the habits of the animal population and the nature of the territory can ensure that visitors will profit from their excursion to the maximum.

During the rainy season, even experienced guides can hesitate over which path to take amid the tall tropical grasses of the reserve. As visitors will soon discover, these grasses are anything but gentle to the touch, and after a single thorny encounter, one is only too happy to let an experienced companion reconnoiter the area in search of wildlife or simply the right direction to the next stopping-off place.

The guides also know how to find the elusive vestiges of a series of villages inhabited from the thirteenth to the 19th centuries by huntsmen and their families. Occasional fragments of ruined walls indicate the former presence of dwellings, while elsewhere, innumerable pottery shards or intact earthenware receptacles offer much testimony of the lives that were led here.

In more remote historical periods, the Shai dwelt in the careens of the surrounding hills. Ulteriorly, these same caves were used as temporary refuges and strategic strongholds during the episodic wars between the Shai and the Ga.

As wildlife rarified during the early years of the 20th century, the Shai huntsmen progressively abandoned the hillsides for the surrounding villages which their descendants inhabit today.

At present, there reserve's animal population includes monkeys (baboons and cercopithecus), water bucks, royal antelope, cephalophes, oribus and wildcats, while the lovely surrounding hills offer the possibility of hiking, camping and excursions on horseback.

Kalakpa Game Reserve

Coordinates: 6° 26′ 0″ N, 0° 27′ 0″ O

Occupying 32,440 hectares, located in the Volta Region and a few kilometres from the Accra-Ho highway, the Reserve offers a dense forest population as Mole Park, with the exception of elephants and lions.

Boaben-Fiemi Sanctuary

Coordinates: 7° 43′ 8″ N, 1° 43′ 25″ W

Situated to the east of the Kintampo-Nkoranza axis in the Brong-Ahafo Region, the Sanctuary is celebrated for its black and white-furred Colobus monkeys, considered by the local inhabitants as being protective spirits and allowed free run of their homes during the day.

Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary

Coordinates: 6° 54′ 18″ N, 0° 23′ 13″ O

Wooden signs point down well-maintained paths into the bush at the Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary in the Volta Region near Hohoe. The trails wind into the bush where hundreds of Mona monkeys spy on visitors from high above in branches. The sanctuary allows tourists to directly interact with Mona monkeys.

Before the sanctuary was established in 1993, the local population hunted the Mona monkey for its meat. But now, the monkeys are revered and protected and the sanctuary provides a stream of revenue into the area. Foster Asempa, one of the four tour guides at the sanctuary, said that Tafi Atome generates about 10,000 cedis for the local community a year. And that money goes to fund development projects in Tafi Atome, where 1,500 people live.

Boumfoum Reserve

Coordinates: 6° 4′ 9″ N, 4° 18′ 31″ W

Boumfoum is located just before Juaben. Although the tarred road continues to the entrance to the Boumfoum Reserve and practically to Banfabiri Falls, cars must be left at the reserve entrance, after which visitors proceed on foot.

Bomfobiri Wildlife Sanctuary

Coordinates: 6° 59′ 30″ N, 1° 10′ 30″ W

Covering 5,180 hectares the Sanctuary is located in Ashanti territory, in a transitional, lightly wooded region lying between the savannas and the tropical forest. The sanctuary offer a wide variety of bird life, monkeys and small antelope.

Bobiri Forest Butterfly Sanctuary

Coordinates: 6° 40′ 14″ N, 1° 18′ 50″ W

Located 20km on the Kumasi – Accra highway, a quiet research centre for the Forestry Research Institute showcasing an arboretum, forest hiking trails and a butterfly sanctuary, lodging, guiding and interpretative materials are available.