This dataset contains information about the locations and local environmental conditions of 123 Malaise trap samples collected in November-December 2021 in the 908 km2 forested ‘leakage belt’ buffer zone of the Gola Rainforest National Park (GRNP) in eastern Sierra Leone, where cocoa, a driver of deforestation, is the main cash crop. Each trap was set out for five days with >99% ethanol. The samples were transported from Sierra Leone to the UK, where they have been sent for metabarcoding for arthropods (using Leray2 PCR primers). The work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (Grant NE/S014063/1). Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/161315e4-71c1-481d-906c-149ab2e9705c