Ace News for Apes: Congo Creates Two New Parks

©Nick Nichols/NGS

A so-called “green abyss” of ancient sands, a swamp forest, and other remarkable wild lands will be set aside for elephants, chimps, hippos, crocodiles, and gorillas native to the Republic of Congo. Plans to create two new protected areas spanning nearly one million hectares (3,800 square miles) were announced at the United Nations on September 18 by Henri Djombo, minister of forestry economy of the Republic of Congo, and officials from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

The first of the two new protected areas is called Ougoue-Lekiti National Park, which lies in the western part of the Congo. Ougoue-Lekiti will adjoin Bateke National Park in Gabon, established with WCS’s help in 2002. This transboundary protected area will safeguard a vast and ancient sand dune system, a savanna, dense gallery forest, and a multitude of small lakes and river valleys. The park also supports an intact block of Chaillu forest and the Ougue River basin, which borders a series of natural forest clearings used by large mammals.

Until recently, the region contained lions—unusual to the Congo Basin—though poaching may have wiped out the population. The savanna landscape still supports such rare species as Grimm’s duiker (a small antelope), side-striped jackal, and Denham’s bustard, a large terrestrial bird. Inside Ougoue-Lekiti forests roam elephants, buffalo, bush pigs, leopards, gorillas, chimpanzees, and other primates.
 
Ntokou-Pikounda, the second protected area to be created in the coming year, lies southeast of Odzala Kokoua National Park, home to one of the biggest gorilla populations in the world. The mosaic of swamp forest, clearings, and mixed forests are also habitat for elephants, chimpanzees, crocodiles, and hippos, as well as rare and threatened birds such as crowned eagles and many species of hornbills. The remoteness of the region—much of which lies beyond the current reach of bushmeat hunters—means that this “green abyss,” in the words of WCS conservationist Mike Fay, is still relatively undisturbed.

WCS field staff will work with the Congolese government to ensure the success of the new protected areas, just as we have helped to manage the country’s Lac Télé Community Reserve, Concouati-Douli National Park, and Nouabalé Ndoki National Park. There, our scientists and educators are training the next generation of national park managers, biologists, and community conservationists.

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