TITLE:
Adoptive National Park Management: Assessing the Governance and Institutional Capacity of CITES Implementation for Conservation in Sapo National Park, Liberia
AUTHORS:
Reagan Swen Bropleh
KEYWORDS:
Conservation, CITES, Governance, Sapo National Park, Management
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.10 No.5,
May
25,
2023
ABSTRACT: Management of wildlife species has recently become a global concern as most are threatened to near extinction or endangered. The establishment of national parks such as the Sapo National Park (SNP) in the 1980s as a conservation area has been found as one of many solutions for protection of wildlife species in Liberia. Nonetheless, due to various natural and anthropogenic drivers and pressures, the SNP is under consistent threat of losing its biodiversity integrity. Various factors including weak national environmental policy formulation and institutional capacity building have been observed as factors contributing to these impacts on the SNP. Therefore, adoption of international regulation such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in 1981 to curtail the menace has been a plausible solution. However, this is yet challenged by several factors. This has led to over exploitation of CITES-listed species from the SNP overtime. In this study, the authors provide an overview of institutional capacity challenges through interactive stakeholder engagement with managers of the SNP and identify causative measures which have impeded and limited the enforcement and implementation of CITES in the SNP to control the trade in wildlife. Through consultative discussion with relevant private and public stakeholders, the study explores the possible weakness of CITES implementation in Libera and for the SNP. The findings of this study are relevant for the managers of the SNP as well as contributing to the international context of determining national park management challenges and measures. A DPSIR framework of the various causes, effects and resolutions to the SNP is provided.