Bia National Park and Unesco Biosphere Reserve

BIA Biosphere Reserve also known as BIA National Park or BIA conservation area is located in the western North region of Ghana at Sefwi Kunkumso. it has diverse range both flora and fauna. The Bia Conservation Landscape consists of a network of forest reserves and off-reserve lands. This includes the Bia Conservation Area (made up of the Bia National Park and the Resource Reserve), the Bia North R

eserve, the Krokosue Hills Forest Reserve and the neighbouring off-reserve areas. The landscape has a total area of 7,745.5 km2 and lies between longitude 3° 02’ and 3° 10’ West and latitudes 6° 32’ and 6° 40’ North in the Juaboso and Bia districts of the Western North Region of Ghana. Bia was created in 1935 and named after the Bia River which drains the area. As a move towards conserving one of Ghana’s last remaining remnants of relatively untouched forest, with its full diversity of wildlife, the Bia forest, covering an area of 77.7 km2, became a National Park in 1974 (Forestry Commission 2007). The park was later designated as a Biosphere Reserve in 1995, by UNESCO, to further secure the forest’s rich biological resources and the culture of the neighboring communities, expressed in the reverence for the forest (Forestry Commission 2007). This forest ecosystem hosts significant populations of unique floral and faunal species, including exceptionally high emergent trees, over 62 species of mammals, and 160 bird species (CI-Ghana 2002).