Mole National Park

Mole National Park began life as the Mole Game Reserve in 1958, when Ghana’s wildlife authorities set aside 4,554 km² of Guinea savanna to curb intensive hunting and safeguard the Mole River headwaters.

In 1964–1971 the reserve was enlarged and roughly 1,200 residents of six villages were resettled; under Legislative Instrument 710 the land was formally gazetted as Ghana’s first national park on 4 September 1971.

The Gbantala Triangle was annexed in 1992, increasing the park to its current 4,577 km² and making it the country’s largest protected area; its growing elephant herd and diverse antelope species helped secure a place on UNESCO’s Tentative World Heritage List in 2000.

Since the 1990s the focus has shifted to community-based ecotourism—initiatives such as Mognori Eco-Village and the Jelinkon CREMA share tourism revenue and resource rights with fringe communities—cutting poaching and turning Mole into a regional model for savanna conservation.