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Liberia's forestry authority said poachers have overrun thecountry's national parks and are killing elephants, chimpanzees andother protected species for sale on the bushmeat market. Liberia's Gola forest preserve is part of a vast rainforest thatonce stretched across this part of West Africa but now covers justpatches of Liberia and neighboring countries. The head of conservation at the government Forest DevelopmentAuthority (FDA), Theo Freeman, said poachers are now threateningthe existence of several rare animal species living in the Gola andSarpo national parks. "There are people who have decided to justget in the forest and hunt everything they come across," he said. "The hunting also goes on for those species that are fullyprotected like the leopards, the pygmy hippopotamus, the elephant,the crocodile, jentik duikers, and what have you," Freeman said."We had about seven species of monkey. They are killingeverything." Freeman said hunters sell the animals as bushmeat, which is oftenexported to neighboring Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, despite a banon the cross-border sale of wild animals. "Where we are now ishighly commercial. You see truckloads of dried meat, bushmeatendangered or not endangered, coming from rural areas to town," headded. Freeman said snaring and wire traps are the methods of choice. He said gunfire draws too much attention. "A single man in a village who have about 200 or 300 [traps], hesets these things and he won't have a chance to visit the trapsthroughout the day, or sometimes two or three weeks," Freeman said."We go on the back roads and we see these things and the animalsare dead. You see the bones. Some are getting rotten. It is a verycruel way to hunt." Rural communities have traditionally hunted and eaten wild animals.However conservationists have long condemned the commercialbushmeat trade as one of the primary threats to African wildlife.Still, the trade continues to thrive in West and Central Africa, inpart due to poverty. Liberian hunter Ben Varney said he cannot find any other way tosupport his five children. "No job in the country. I need to killthese animals to feed my family," he said. "If the government provides job, we will leave the forest. But fornow, this is the only place we depend on to supply our needs,"Varney added. "I kill the animals, sell them, to send mychildren to school and feed my family." In Liberia, it is illegal to kill protected species likechimpanzees and elephants. However, current laws are weak andvague, making prosecution difficult. Forest rangers are not allowedto carry guns and it is difficult for them to patrol such largeexpanses of territory. Freeman said the FDA drafted a revised law that would strengthenpunishments for illegal hunting. However the legislation continuesto languish in the president's office. Meanwhile, he said the hunting continues to push endangered speciescloser to extinction. I am an expert from led-globe-lights.com, while we provides the quality product, such as GU10 LED Spotlight Manufacturer , Ceramic Light Bulb, Brightest LED Light,and more.
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