Western Area Peninsula National Park, Protected area on the Freetown Peninsula, Sierra Leone.
Western Area Peninsula National Park covers 183.37 square kilometers of coastal forests and semi-deciduous woodland, supporting diverse wildlife including endangered bird species and three types of duiker.
Originally established as a forest reserve in 1916 by Charles Lane Poole, Sierra Leone's first Conservator of Forests, the area was formally declared a national park in 2012.
The park houses the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, founded in 1995 by Bala Amarasekaran, which annually hosts over 2,000 local school children for wildlife conservation education programs.
Visitors can access the park from Freetown with guided tours available for birdwatching and wildlife observation, though proper planning is recommended due to tropical weather conditions including rainy seasons.
The park contains some of Sierra Leone's last remaining semi-deciduous rainforest and has been classified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International for its significant avian populations.
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