Lobéké National Park (alternate: Lake Lobake National Park) is a

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

of southeastern

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

within the Moloundou Arrondissement of East Province. Located in the

Congo Basin The Congo Basin () is the sedimentary basin of the Congo River. The Congo Basin is located in Central Africa, in a region known as west equatorial Africa. The Congo Basin region is sometimes known simply as the Congo. It contains some of the larg ...

, it is bounded on the east by the

Sangha River The Sangha River (, , ), a tributary of the Congo River, is located in Central Africa. Geography The Sangha River is formed at the confluence of the Mambéré River and the Kadéï River at Nola in the western Central African Republic (). The ...

which serves as Cameroon's international border with

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to Central African Republic–Chad border, the north, Sudan to Central African Republic–Sudan border, the northeast, South Sudan to Central ...

and the

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo), is a country located on the western coast of Central ...

. It is adjacent to two other reserves in the CAR and Congo. To the northwest is Boumba Bek National Park, another national park in Cameroon's East Province. In a conference of the Ministers of Forests of Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC), it had been resolved to establish within the

, the Sangha River Tri-national Protected area (STN) encompassing the Dzanga Sangha Special Reserve in the Central African Republic, which incorporates the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo (

Brazzaville Brazzaville () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo. Administratively, it is a Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and a Communes of the Republic of the Congo, commune. Constituting t ...

) and the Lobéké National Park in

History

Already in 1991, the WWF had conducted a biological assessment of the area and recommended that the Lobéké area be protected, recommending that the unexploited 40,000 hectares be expanded to encompass over 400,000 hectares. In October 1999, the park was declared a National Park. In the same year the so-called Yaoundé Declaration was signed, forming a tri-national park agreement of cooperation with Dzanga-Sangha Forest Reserve in the

and the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the

Republic of Congo The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo), is a country located on the western coast of Central ...

. This tri-park area, called the Sangha Trinational is operated by the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC), and is overlooked and funded by international wildlife groups such as the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the ...

, the German Cooperation of Technical Collaboration (GTZ) and the

Wildlife Conservation Society The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a global 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) non-governmental organization, headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, with a mission to save "wildlife and wild places across the globe". Founded in ...

(WCS). In 2012, the entire Sangha Trinational protected area (including Lobéké National Park) became a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Geography

Lobéké National Park belongs to the Moloundou arrondissement, located in the vicinity of Boumba-et-Ngoko. The Moloundou area has been described as "one of the richest rubber areas of Africa" and the Germans established a rubber making plant in the area. The park is located close to the borders with neighbouring Republic of Congo and Central African Republic, which is why the tri-national environmental initiative with the park and Dzanga-Sangha Forest Reserve and the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park was made. The park covers , and its altitude ranges from to

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. More than twelve natural savannas, characterized as saline swamps, occur within the park. There are also sandbars on the Sangha. The annual rainfall averages 1400 mm., with the dry season occurring from December through February. Large forest clearings, or bais, have soils rich in various minerals that attract the mega fauna of the forest. Lobéké is the home of many different ethnic groups including the Baka, the Bantu and the Bangando.

Flora and fauna

Lobéké is predominantly a semi-evergreen forest, most of which has never been logged. The forest is characterized by an enormous variety of plants. Dominant species include

Malvaceae Malvaceae (), or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include Theobroma cacao, cacao, Cola (plant), cola, cotton, okra, Hibiscus sabdariffa, ...

('' Triplochiton scleroxylon'', ''

Pterygota Pterygota ( ) is a subclass of insects that includes all winged insects and groups who lost them secondarily. Pterygota group comprises 99.9% of all insects. The orders not included are the Archaeognatha (jumping bristletails) and the Zygent ...

'', ''

Ceiba pentandra ''Ceiba pentandra'' is a tropical tree of the order (biology), order Malvales and the family (biology), family Malvaceae (previously emplaced in the family Bombacaceae), native to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, northern South America, ...

'') and ''

Terminalia superba ''Terminalia superba'', the superb terminalia, limba, afara (UK), korina (US), frake (Africa), African limba wood, or ofram (Ghana), is a large tree in the family Combretaceae, native to tropical western Africa. It grows up to 60 m tall, with a ...

''. The

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the Canopy (biology), forest ca ...

consists of

Marantaceae The Marantaceae are a family, the arrowroot family, or the prayer plant family, of flowering plants consisting of 31 genera and around 530 species, defining it as one of the most species-rich families in its order. Kennedy, H. (2000). “Diversif ...

Zingiberaceae Zingiberaceae () or the ginger family is a family of flowering plants made up of about 50 genera with a total of about 1600 known species of aromatic perennial herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes distributed throughout tropical ...

thicket, or

Ebenaceae The Ebenaceae are a family of flowering plants belonging to order Ericales. The family includes ebony and persimmon among about 768 species of trees and shrubs. It is distributed across the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world. It i ...

and

Annonaceae The Annonaceae are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest ...

trees. Near streams there are clusters of '' Gilbertiodendron dewevrei''. Palm thickets and

sedge The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as wikt:sedge, sedges. The family (biology), family is large; botanists have species description, described some 5,500 known species in about 90 ...

marshes border the savannas. There are more than 300 species of trees in Lobéké. Some of the highest densities of

African forest elephant The African forest elephant (''Loxodonta cyclotis'') is one of the two living species of African elephant, along with the African bush elephant. It is native to humid tropical forests in West Africa and the Congo Basin. It is the smallest of the ...

s and

western lowland gorilla The western lowland gorilla (''Gorilla gorilla gorilla'') is one of two Critically Endangered subspecies of the western gorilla (''Gorilla gorilla'') that lives in Montane ecosystems#Montane forests, montane, Old-growth forest, primary and sec ...

s in all of Africa are found in Lobéké. Other animals include

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...

gorilla Gorillas are primarily herbivorous, terrestrial 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 five su ...

leopards The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant cat species in the genus ''Panthera''. It has a pale yellowish to dark golden fur with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its body is slender and muscular reaching a length of with a ...

, as well as ten species of forest

ungulate Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Euungulata ("true ungulates"), which primarily consists of large mammals with Hoof, hooves. Once part of the clade "Ungulata" along with the clade Paenungulata, "Ungulata" has since been determined ...

s. In addition to mammals, the faunal inventory includes 215 species of butterflies, 134 species of fish, 18 species of

reptiles Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

, and 16 species of

amphibians Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

. Lobéké National Park 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 ...

(#CM033). Over three hundred species of birds have been recorded here. The African green pigeon,

hornbill Hornbills are birds found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia of the family Bucerotidae. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a horny casque on the upper ...

s, yellow-throated cuckoo, sandy scops owl and the chocolate-backed kingfisher can all be found in the park. Specifically within Cameroon and

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

, it is an important bird area for the Dja River scrub warbler.

Environmental issues

Due to Lobéké' proximity to Congo and CAR, the park is part of a tri-national environmental initiative that includes the Dzanga Sangha Special Reserve of CAR and the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park of the Republic of the Congo. Observation towers built above ground level support ecological monitoring and tourism. Timber exploitation and safari hunting are a concern, as well as poaching for

bushmeat Bushmeat is meat from wildlife species that are Hunting, hunted for human consumption. Bushmeat represents a primary source of animal protein and a cash-earning commodity in poor and rural communities of humid tropical forest regions of the worl ...

, exotic animals, and ivory.

Illegal fishing Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) is an issue around the world. Fishing industry observers believe IUU occurs in most fisheries, and accounts for up to 30% of total catches in some important fisheries. Illegal fishing takes pl ...

or bird poaching is a major problem and every year thousands of African gray parrots are caught and exported illegally. Even in 1997, when the government placed a ban on the export of birds, many birds were still caught and sold illegally for traditional medicine and other reasons. Mineral deposits have not been ruled out. A growing local population is dependent upon local resources.

History

Geography

Flora and fauna

Environmental issues

See also

References

Further reading