Old Handmade maps of the Bakoun Forest

Old Handmade map of the Bakoun Forest, Guinea.

Within the old files of the prefecture of Togue we found handmade maps of the Bakoun forest, one of many classified forests inside Guinea. Rough paper, colors faded by time, reference lines made with light pencil and ruler, rusty old paper smell, these are no doubt pieces for collection. Bakoun is the area where I will be working, approximately 300 squared meters of barely untouched inhabited forest. There are old notes reporting signs of leopards, buffalos, waterbucks, chimps, baboons and even lions, although the latter are long extinct here around. It’s wild, the first live report I got from this area confirmed that it's infested with Tse-Tse flies, which besides being a mayor annoyance for field work, is a good sign that there is plenty of wildlife around. For now this hand sketch and a couple of boring digital maps is our only reference, soon there will be more to show.