Protected Areas of West Africa: What is the Future for Animal Biodiversity?

As a result of the development of human activities, protected areas very often represent the only spaces where biodiversity can be maintained. In West African states, they are limited in area, usually corresponding to less than 3 % of the total national land surface (such as in Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Ghana), sometimes from 3 % to 10 % of total land surface (such as in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana) and very rarely m..