Haut Niger

Upper Niger National Park was established in 1997 in central Guinea, in the upper basin of the river Niger, and protects some 1,200 km². Its core is the Mafou classified forest.

It preserves one of the last significant blocks of dry forest and wooded savannah in the upper Niger region, in a territory where shifting cultivation, firewood extraction and fires have transformed most of the plant cover. Its hydrological function is significant: the Fouta Djallon massif and the Guinean highlands are the headwaters of the Niger, the Senegal and the Gambia, the three great rivers of West Africa, and the conservation of this basin governs the flow on which millions of people downstream depend.

The park is home to a population of western chimpanzee, a critically endangered subspecies whose study in Guinea has produced important observations on tool use, as well as hippopotamus, buffalo, korrigum and a rich savannah birdlife. It is organised into a strict core zone and a use zone where Malinké communities live who practise farming and fishing. The pressure of agriculture, artisanal gold mining and hunting are its main threats.