Conservation & 

Protected
Areas Management in Western
Africa
Julien, Anye, Wei Wei, Monica, Suvinay, Preona

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) defines a protected area as: “A clearly
defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated, and managed, through legal or other effective
means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural
values”
West Africa in numbers

Population of 340 Average yearly income
million.  60% live in is USD800 (2011).
rural areas (compared to USD1500 of Sub-
Sahara Africa)
43 percent of the The area accounts for Nigeria, Ghana and
population below the more than 70% of Ivory Coast are the
international $1.90 military coups in major economies in the
per day poverty line in Africa area
2013

There are only a few
areas within the West
African forest
zone where all wildlife is
fully protected by law
There are only a few
areas within the West
African forest
zone where all wildlife is
fully protected by law
From Guinea to the Nigeria-
Cameroon border there are only 11
national parks distributed across eight
countries in the forest zone, together
with a handful of wildlife or game
sanctuaries.
Most of the national parks are small
(less than 50000 ha in area) and
therefore not of maximum value for the
long-term protection of viable
populations of large mammals
9.6% of West Africa is currently protected based on governance and management goals, however,
many countries are yet to be assigned to one of the seven IUCN categories

• 17 countries in Western Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte D'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania,
Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo)
• All vary greatly due to regulations, political stances and physical stature 
• 1,936 nationally protected areas currently in the region, covering  9.6% of West Africa 
• IUCN has developed a system to categorize protected areas based on governance and management goals, however, many protected areas have
yet to be assigned a category 
• Difficult to assign category as each country is so different and has different goals
• Split into 7 categories (Strict nature reserve, wilderness area, national park, natural monument or feature, habitat/species management area,
protected landscape/seascape, protected area with sustainable use of natural resources
IUCN protected area management categories classify protected areas according to
their management objectives and are recognised by the UN and different government bodies
Sharks
• Shark conservation at its prime focus by
government
• Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora focusing on how to adopt
international trade regulations to sharks
and rays
• Conducting assessments known as
nondetriment findings (if the trade in a
species contains no risk to that species),
and how to identify shark fins
• Need to conserve sharks for the health
of the ocean
Turtles
• Caught by nets and fishing hooks, along with
cables dragged by big fishing vessels
• Project is being incorporated by 7 countires in
West Africa through a funded project run by
BirdLife International
• Aim of project is to diminish seabirds and
turtles bycatch in industrial fisheries by 80%
in 2022 in these 7 countries (Cape Verde,
Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania,
Senegal and Sierra Leone)
• Capacity building observers working at sea is
critical to supervise fishing activities and key
to success of this project
Seabirds
• Most threatened bird in the world
• Over 1 million killed each year due to
fishing activities
• Same project for turtles as for Seabirds
• 7 countries in west Africa are the most
important fishing locations in the world
along with being a crucial migratory
corridor for birds that migrate between
Europe and Africa
• Governments are meant to regulate fishing
activities in the area including checking
amount of fish being caught and if it is
being done in illegal areas, but rarely do
they mandate checks
Conservation & Protection of Areas in West Africa has been evolving for over a century; the main
challenge right now is to take care of the endangered areas in an efficient way

1900s 1930s 1950s 2000s

Lodo Convention I
Convention for the Preservation of
Wild Animals, Birds and Fish in
Africa.
Focused in hunting regulations
Full Protection of:
giraffe, gorilla, chimpanzee,
mountain zebra, wild ass, white-
tailed gnu
Nature Protection: Less
Successful.  Park in South Africa
French West Africa established
seventeen reserves,
London Convention II IUCN established a provisional Johannesburg Summit of 2002
Convention Relative to the Committee on National Parks Parakour Seminar between
Preservation of Fauna and Flora in during its 1958 West African countries 
their Natural State
National Parks in West Africa: West African countries meet to
Promoted the idea that each colonial
the Niokolo in Senegal, Comoe review questions regarding
power should establish national parks protected areas 
in Ivory Coast, the W in Niger,
and reserves in their colonial Challenges> Making them
etc. 
territories.  efficient and complete
Example to follow: Kruger National networks

Budgetary shortfalls also made the establishment of large game reserves less and less attractive. 
1. https://agrarianstudies.macmillan.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/colloqpapers/04cioc.pdf
2. https://iea.uoregon.edu/treaty-text/2594
3. https://www.iucn.org/sites/dev/files/import/downloads/history_wcpa_15july_web_version_1.pdf
4. https://books.openedition.org/irdeditions/8010?lang=fr
5. https://au.int/en/overview
6.  https://papaco.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/BOOC-GAP_EN_v2.pdf
Most of the countries in West Africa have not progressed a lot in terms of marine wildlife protection

Country # Protected Areas EME* Terrestrial Marine Growth

Mauritania 9 8
6,508km2 (0.62%) 6,488km (4.15%) 1 km (1980) to 9 km (2010)

Mali 136 13 94,591km2    (7.53%) 0 0 km (1940) to 140 km (2010)

Nigera 1001 13 127,332km (13.92%) 31 km (0.02%) Needs revision

Niger 27 11 (216,586km2)   18.2% 0

Benin 64 8 34,415km2  29.54% 0

Togo 87 4 16,081km2 (27.98%) 31 km 

Ghana 313 9 35,675km2 (14.84%) 219 km(0.1%)

Burkina Faso 112 4 45,403km2  0

Ivory Coast 255 9 74,419km (22.96%) 127 (0.07%)

Liberia 19 8 3,916km (4.05%) 256km (0.1%)

Sierra Leone 67 10 9,270km (12.95%) 2,611km (1.63%)

Guinea 126 14 88,286km (35.83%) 583 km (0.53%)

Ginea-Bissau 33 9 8,954km (26.32%) 9,574km (8.99%)

The Gambia 24 9 830 km (7.72%) 137 km (0.7%)

Senegal  138 16 52,240km (26.39%) 2,933km (1.85%)

Market needs/Emerging issues
Priorities:
• Valuing and conserving nature
• Promoting effective governance of natural
resources
• Developing nature-based solutions to address
societal challenge
Issues:
• Declining national economies-->imperative need
to protect areas for the needs of rural
development
• Protected areas consist of around 9% of land in
Africa, however, it is threatened by weak
institutions, civil unrest, limited trained staff and
budgets
• Tourism offers potential development in Eastern
and Southern Africa, but not Western Africa
• Heavy regulation relating to protected areas in
Western Africa at national levels, however,
legislation is no longer valid and lacks resources
to implement
APPENDIX
Benin
https://www.protectedplanet.net/country/BEN
Mali
Nigeria need to review 
TOGO https://www.protectedplanet.net/country/TGO
Niger
https://www.protectedplanet.net/country/NER
Ghana
https://www.protectedplanet.net/country/GHA
Burkina Faso 
https://www.protectedplanet.net/country/BFA
Funding 
On an area basis of just USD150/km²/year, only a few European Union (EU) projects of PAs in West Africa spend close to
this target (about USD120-140/km²/year), while private funding for game reserves in West Africa is far less, although the
size of this contribution is unclear. In conclusion, the current spending on PAs is grossly inadequate, not only to support
the costs of existing sites, but also to ensure the creation and effective management of a representative regional system
of PAs.

T he historical analysis in West Africa over the last 15-20 years shows that the external funding for conservation was
about USD780 million. In terms of percentage of the allocation of these funds, Nigeria and Ghana received more than
15%, whilst the smaller countries (Gambia, Guinea-Bissau), the less secure countries (Sierra Leone) and the countries of
the desert ecotype received about 1-3% of the funds. Funding for transborder protected areas was about 10 % of the
total. The regional programmes on conservation used about 12% of the available funds.