Landscape Level Assessment (LLA) completed
Published 1 Apr, 2014
We are pleased to announce that we have just completed a crucial element of our strategy: a Landscape Level Assessment (LLA) of southeastern Liberia, undertaken by Fauna and Flora International.
An LLA is a framework for identifying biodiversity and ecological support areas within a developing landscape of alternative land uses. The assessment analyses spatial datasets in a geographical information system (GIS) to identify high biodiversity areas and cumulative impacts from developments.
The report has helped us:
a. Identify several key priority conservation areas, as well as a large central forest corridor, that extends across and within the assessment area, the maintenance of which is crucial in preserving the high biodiversity in the region
b. Given us a greater understanding of the increasing threat of deforestation in the assessment area, and the resulting fragmentation of high biodiversity hotspots
c. Provided evidence for the value of Proposed Protected Areas (PPAs) and the threats they face from development and deforestation
This key priority conservation area:
• Contains a large proportion of core forest habitat, connected through corridor habitat
• Encompasses several known occurrence records for rare and threatened species
• Includes large connected areas of high biodiversity and ecological support areas
• Correlates with several priority Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) and Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA) in the landscape (and of national significance)
• Has relatively low rate of historical large-scale deforestation
• Contains no known large-scale agriculture development concessions
This assessment is the first of its kind to have been completed in recent years, and provides an extremely useful foundation for the development of a conservation strategy going forward.