Boucle Du Baoulé National Park
The park
Mali is one of the sub-Saharan countries most affected by drought and over-grazing by livestock, putting its ecology and biodiversity under pressure. The Boucle du Baoulé National Park was created to try to address this issue. It is part of a complex which also includes the Badinko Faunal Reserve, the Fina Faunal Reserve, the Kongossambougou Faunal Reserve and the Bossofola Forest Reserve. These preserved areas consist of desert and semi-desert areas, and include dry, lightly-wooded savannah, riverine forest and thorn scrub. Much of the large animal population in the country occurs in these types of habitat.
Management of the park comes under the National Parks Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Animal Husbandry. However the International Union for Conservation of Nature considers that the control of protected areas within the country has been ineffective, with continuing illegal hunting and encroachment on the reserves by villagers for pastoralism and agriculture.
A population of the critically endangered Western chimpanzee is present in the park, where it faces threats from poaching and habitat destruction.
The park has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports significant populations of many bird species.
World Heritage Status
This site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on September 8, 1999, as a biosphere reserve in the Cultural category.
References
- ^ "Boucle du Baoulé Biosphere Reserve". UNESCO - MAB Biosphere Reserves Directory. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
- ^ "Important Bird Areas in Africa" (PDF). Birdlife International. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
- ^ S. N. Stuart; Richard J. Adams; Martin Jenkins (1990). Biodiversity in Sub-Saharan Africa and Its Islands: Conservation, Management, and Sustainable Use. IUCN. pp. 136–. ISBN 978-2-8317-0021-2.
- ^ "Boucle du Baoulé National Park". Apes Mapper. Archived from the original on 1 November 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
- ^ "Boucle du Baoulé". BirdLife Data Zone. BirdLife International. 2024. Retrieved 2024-10-27.
- ^ "Boucle du Baoulé". Biosphere Reserve Information. UNESCO. Retrieved 31 October 2016.