National Park of Upper Niger, National park in Kankan Prefecture, Guinea.

The National Park of Upper Niger covers 554 km² around the former Mafou classified forest, through which the Niger flows. Its core protection area is bounded by the Niger to the north-west and by the Mafou and Kofing rivers to the east and south. A buffer zone surrounds it, including a 24,500 ha no-hunting zone and the contiguous Amana (19,800 ha) and Tamba (16,000 ha) classified forests.

The Mafou Forest, the last dry forest in Guinea, stayed sparsely populated because of widespread river blindness and the raids of Samory Touré in the late 19th century. The area was gazetted as a national park in January 1997 around the former Mafou classified forest, and UNESCO included it in its biosphere reserve network on 16 December 2002.

People living in the buffer zone carry on traditional ways of using the forest, growing crops and collecting forest products as part of their daily lives. These practices shape how the landscape looks and how communities relate to the natural surroundings.

The park is best accessed from the town of Kankan, and visitors should expect rough conditions, especially during the rainy season. A local guide is helpful for exploring both zones and improving chances of seeing wildlife.

The park's Mafou core is the last remaining area of dry forest in Guinea. Its low human population is linked to widespread river blindness and to the late 19th-century raids of Samory Touré, which kept settlement away and left the forest little disturbed over the past 50 years.