| Mole National Park | |
|---|---|
 AnAfrican bush elephant at the park | |
  | |
| Location |  Ghana |
| Nearest city | Larabanga |
| Coordinates | 9°42′N1°50′W / 9.700°N 1.833°W /9.700; -1.833 |
| Area | 4840 km2 |
| Established | 1958 |
Mole National Park, one ofGhana's seven national parks, is the country's largestwildlife refuge.[1][2] The park is located in theSavannah region of Ghana onsavanna andriparianecosystems at an elevation of 50 m, with a sharpescarpment forming the southern boundary of the park. The Park is 24 km fromDamongo, the district capital, 146 km south east ofTamale, the Regional capital. The park is 700 km fromAccra and 430 km fromKumasi.[3] The park's entrance is reached through the nearby town ofLarabanga.[1][4] It covers an area of about 4,577 square kilometers of fairly undisturbed Guinea savannah in the northern part of Ghana.[2] The Levi and Mole Rivers are ephemeral rivers flowing through the park, leaving behind only drinking holes during the long dry season.[5] This area of Ghana receives over 10 mm per year of rainfall. A long-term study has been done on Mole National Park to understand theimpact of human hunters on the animals in the preserve.[6]
The park is also Ghana’s most developed tourism site in terms of tourist amenities. The reserve has West Africa’s first luxury safari lodge.[3]
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 to a national park. The park has not seen major development as a tourist location since its original designation. The Mole National park as a protective area is underfunded and national and international concerns exist aboutpoaching and sustainability in the park, but its protection of important resident antelope species has improved since its initial founding as a preserve.[7][8]
Since the resettlement of humans from the area, the park has become an important study area for scientists. This has allowed 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 asBurkea africana, an important tropical hardwood, andVitellaria paradoxa, the source ofshea butter, over the less importantTerminalia spp.[6][9]
Recently, honey made from flowers in the Molé National Forest has become the region's first fair-trade commodity.[10] Nearby, villagers harvest the honey using traditional, non-invasive methods, and have partnered with a Utah-based company to sell the honey as a health and wellness supplement in theUS.[11] The program was co-founded byAshanti Chief Nana Kwasi Agyemang, who hopes to re-ignite local interest in the honey and eventually export it to other countries in Africa.[12]
Tree species of the park includeBurkea africana,Isoberlinia doka, andTerminalia macroptera. The savanna grasses are somewhat low in diversity but known species include aspikesedge,Kyllinga echinata; anAneilema,Aneilema setiferum var.pallidiciliatum; and twoendemic members of theAsclepiadaceae subfamily, the vineGongronema obscurum, and the ediblegeophyte,Raphionacme vignei.[9][13][14][15]
Trees:
Shrubs:
Herbaceous plants:
Grasslands:
The park is home to over 93mammal species, and the large mammals including anelephant population,hippos,buffalo, andwarthogs.[16][17] The park is considered a primary African preserve for antelope species includingkob,defassa waterbuck,roan,hartebeest,oribi, thebushbuck, and twoduikers, thered duiker andyellow-backed duiker.[7][16][17][18][19]Olive baboons,black-and-white colobus monkeys, thegreen vervet, andpatas monkeys are the known species of monkeys resident in the park.[16] Of the 33 known species of reptilesslender-snouted anddwarf crocodile are found in the park.[1][16][17] Sightings ofhyenas,lions andleopards are unusual, but thesecarnivores were once more common in the park.[6][17] Among the 344 listed bird species are themartial eagle, thewhite-headed andpalm-nut vultures,saddle-billed storks,herons,egrets, theAbyssinian roller, theviolet turaco, variousshrikes and thered-throated bee-eater.[1] The park has been designated anImportant Bird Area (IBA) byBirdLife International because it supports significant populations of many bird species.[20]
Mole National Park, like other Ghanaian game preserves, is poorly funded for prevention ofpoaching. Nevertheless, the fauna of the park is guarded by professional rangers,[21] and the poachers are at real risk to be put under arrest. Poachers tend to live within 50 km of the boundaries of the park.[6] This distance of 50 km is the reported greatest distance hunters were willing to travel with poached game.[6] The remnant human population of the park was removed in 1961, leaving all game hunters outside the reserve, meaning that mammal populations on the edges of the park are impacted more by hunting than interior populations.
After improvements to the roads leading to the park, the number of visitors to the park increased from 14,600 in 2014 to 17,800 in 2015. Depending on the year, about 20-40% of visitors are foreigners. Farouk Umaru Dubiure, the Park Manager, says, “though we received many visitors, the funds generated were very low because 70 percent of the visitors were Ghanaian students who pay little to visit the park. These students also visit the Park on the same day and return, compared to the foreigners who spend more days to view the Park well.”[22][23]
The new road was also blamed for facilitating illegal rosewood logging bound forChina.[24]
Other tourist attractions around the Mole area includeBui National Park,Paga Crocodile Pond,Larabanga Mosque,Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows among others.[2]
compiled by R. East.
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Travel information from Wikivoyage
Data from Wikidata