Ogooué-Ivindo Province is the northeasternmost of

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...

's nine

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

, though its Lopé Department is in the very center of the country. It gets its name from two rivers, the Ogooué and the Ivindo. This province, containing thousands of square kilometres of rainforest, is the largest and most sparsely populated and much less developed than the rest of the country. As of 2013 it had a population of 63,293 people. The principal town is

Makokou Makokou is the regional capital of the Ogooué-Ivindo province in Gabon. Its coordinates are . Its altitude is 308 m. Its population in 2004 is around 16,600. The city lies on the Ivindo River and the N4 road. It grew around iron ore mini ...

History

In 1873–4,

Antoine-Alfred Marche Antoine-Alfred Marche (15 February 1844, Boulogne-Billancourt – 31 August 1898, Paris, France) was a French naturalist and explorer. He visited Africa, the Philippines and finally the Mariana Islands. He made collections of various artifacts. ...

and Victor de Compiègne (the Marquis de Compiegné) explored the Ogooué River region. They arrived in Lopé in 1874 but encountered hostility from the Fang-Meke people at the mouth of the Ivindo.

Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazzà, later known as Pierre Paul François Camille Savorgnan de Brazza; 26 January 1852 – 14 September 1905), was an Italian-born, naturalized French explorer. With his family's financial help, he explored the Ogoou� ...

similarly made excursion to the region in November 1875 and between 1879 and 1882. In January 1995, a bout of the

Ebola Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after becom ...

virus broke out in the forests of Ogooué-Ivindo. Nine out of 19 people died in the cases registered out of a population of 350 people. In 2010 it was reported that

yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...

continued to affect the province.

Population

The largest ethnic groups living in this province are the

Fang A fang is a long, pointed tooth. In mammals, a fang is a modified maxillary tooth, used for biting and tearing flesh. In snakes, it is a specialized tooth that is associated with a venom gland (see snake venom). Spiders also have external fang ...

, Kota, and the Kwele.

Geography and wildlife

The province spans part of the centre to the northeast of Gabon, covering an area of . Ogooué-Ivindo borders the

Sangha Sangha is a Sanskrit word used in many Indian languages, including Pali meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community"; Sangha is often used as a surname across these languages. It was historically used in a political context t ...

and Cuvette-Ouest departments of the

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

to the south and southeast, Haut-Ogooué to the southeast, Ogooué-Lolo to the south, Ngounié to the southwest (at a

quadripoint A quadripoint is a point on Earth where four distinct territories meet. The territories can be of different types, such as national and provincial. In North America, several such places are commonly known as Four Corners. Several examples exist ...

), Moyen-Ogooué to the west, and

Woleu-Ntem Woleu-Ntem is the northernmost of Gabon's nine provinces. It covers an area of 38,465 km and named after Woleu and Ntem rivers that cross it. The provincial capital is Oyem, which had a total of 60,685 inhabitants in 2013. As Woleu-Ntem i ...

to the north-northwest. The southern part of the province is crossed by the

Equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...

, with the Lopé Department lying mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. The regional capital is

, by road east of the national capital of

Libreville Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon. Occupying in the northwestern province of Estuaire, Libreville is a port on the Komo River, near the Gulf of Guinea. As of the 2013 census, its population was 703,904. The area has been inh ...

and southwest of

Mékambo Mékambo is a small town in north-eastern Gabon on the banks of the Zadié river. It is located in the Ogooué-Ivindo province of Gabon and is the seat of the Zadié Department. It has received international press for recent outbreaks of Ebola ...

.Makokou
Google Maps, Google. Retrieved 29 April 2020. The principal rivers of the province are the Ogooué and the Ivindo. In the southwest is Ivindo National Park, established in 2002, which contains the

Koungou Koungou is the second largest commune in the French overseas department of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean, after the capital Mamoudzou Mamoudzou (; ''Momojou'') is the capital of Mayotte, a French overseas region and department in the India ...

, Mingouli and Djidji waterfalls.

Lopé National Park Lopé National Park is a national park in central Gabon. Bordered by the Ogooué River to the north and the Chaillu Massif to the south, the park takes up roughly 4912 square kilometers. Although the terrain is mostly monsoon forest, in the nor ...

, also in the southwest of the province, covering an area of , lies to the north of the

Chaillu Mountains The Chaillu Mountains are a mountain range straddling southern Gabon and the Republic of Congo which is named after the French explorer Paul Du Chaillu, who explored and documented this region in the 19th century. The highest peaks are Mont Ib ...

and east of the Mingoué River. It is highly biologically rich, with over 1500 recorded plant species, 412 out of 700 species of bird found in Gabon, and large populations of

mandrill The mandrill (''Mandrillus sphinx'') is a large Old World monkey native to west central Africa. It is one of the most colorful mammals in the world, with red and blue skin on its face and posterior. The species is sexually dimorphic, as males ...

gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or fi ...

s and

chimpanzees The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative the ...

. The Station D'Etudes des Gorilles et Chimpanzes, co-managed by the CIRMF and CWS, is a monitoring facility at Lopé. In the eastern part of the province is Mwagna National Park, which contains dense rainforest and is virtually uninhabited by humans but is biologically rich. The Lodié and the Louayé rivers flow through Mwagna National Park. Mount Bélinga contains resources of iron in the vicinity, which the government are planning on exploiting. The lowland forests in the basin of the Ivindo River are home to one of the most diverse lowland forest

avifauna Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight s ...

s in all of Africa. Ipassa Research Station is an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

near the provincial capital of Makokou, here 190 species of bird restricted to the Guinea-Congo Forest biome have been recorded, this is the highest total for any IBA within the biome.

Departments

Administratively, Ogooué-Ivindo is divided into 4 departments: *

Ivindo Department Ivindo is a department of Ogooué-Ivindo Province in northern-central Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equa ...

(

) * Lope Department (

Booué Booué is a small town in central Gabon. It is situated in Lopé Department, southwest side of the Ogooué-Ivindo Province. The town lies just 6.6 miles to the south of the Equator and is the province's only Department capital in the Souther ...

) * Mvoung Department ( Ovan) * Zadie Department ( Mekambo)

Landmarks

Makokou contains the Cathedral of Our Lady of Victories.

Transport

The main roads passing through the province are the RN3 and RN4 roads. Makokou is home to

Makokou Airport Makokou Airport is an airport serving Makokou, Ogooué-Ivindo Province, Gabon. The runway is northeast of town. The Makokou non-directional beacon (Ident: KO) is located on the field. Airlines and destinations See also * * List of airports ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ogooue-Ivindo Province Provinces of Gabon