Mount Nimba
Guinea / Ivory Coast / Liberia
UNESCO, the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization, lists Mount Nimba as a strict nature reserve, meaning it cannot be used for cultivation, hunting, or mining.
The reserve harbors rich flora and fauna, including endemic species like viviparous toads, which give birth to live offspring, not eggs.
	Chimpanzee does tree top picking, Bossou, Guinea, 30 Jan 08

 

Mount Nimba is a mountain on the border of Ivory Coast, Liberia and Guinea in West Africa. With 1752 meter Mount Nimba is the highest point of these three countries. Mount Nimba is part of the Nimba Massif.

Since 1944 the area is a nature reserve, with the exception of the Liberian part. . It has a size of 180 km ² and is on the World Heritage List of UNESCO. The reserve is a closed, not open to tourism.

Mount Nimba is rich in iron ore. In the Liberian part of the volcano was intense mining practiced until 1989 the reserves were exhausted.

By erosion and the combination of low iron quartzite, shale and granitogneiss have special landscapes.

The mountain got its name in December 1929 during the expedition of Sempere, Sattler and Michelis.

Since 1992 Mount Nimba is on the list of endangered World Heritage. The conern is that Guinea unilaterally the borders of the nature and is reduced to one mining concession granted for the extraction of ijzerts. In 1993 a preliminary agreement on the establishment of an enclave within the boundaries of the park.

The political unrest in the region of a functioning nature reserve no. The government of Ivory Coast has no control over its part of the site. In Guinea, refugees have sought refuge within the boundaries of the reserve. Large parts of the forest by shepherds and their flocks destroyed.

In 2003, the operation of the iron ore mine began. Illegal hunting by miners draws heavily on the reserve. The committee for the World is sceptich on whether protection of the heritage and mining to unite.

For transportation of iron ore is the planned construction of a railway (Trans-Guinea railway). The international mining consortium ensures that the boundaries of the park will not be exceeded.[1]