In 2023, a team of CLP alumni secured a Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) designation for the Sui River Forest Reserve (SRFR), western Ghana. This is the first internationally recognized protection of the site’s unique native biodiversity, which includes the recently rediscovered and Critically Endangered giant squeaker frog (of which a total of only about 35 individuals have ever been recorded).
The team’s CLP-supported work in 2013 and 2022, including the rediscovery of the giant squeaker frog and other survey data identifying several other threatened endemic species, directly contributed to the successful KBA designation.
The new designation has already started to draw increased local and international attention to the forest, including convincing the Ghana Forestry Commission to make SRFR a Nature Reserve with stricter protection, including bans on logging, hunting and farming. It has also secured further funding from the Rainforest Trust to compensate local people affected by conservation actions in SRFR.