Lobéké National Park

The Lobéké National Park is a national park in southeastern Cameroon. The park is part of the Congo Basin.

History

Created early in 1991, the WWF a biological opinion, which recommended to protect the Lobéké area. In October 1999, the 2178 km ² large park was declared a national park. Thus, the Cameroonian government has recognized the years of effort by the WWF for the protection of the area. In the same year the so-called Yaoundé Declaration was signed. Through the cooperation of the tri-national park Sangha arose, often called the Peace Park. Lobéké is part of this cooperation, which includes a total of 14,381 km ².

On 3 July 2012, the tri-national park Sangha was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Geography

Lobeke belongs to the district Moloundou.

The park is located in the Boumba and Ngoko area. Due to its proximity to the neighboring countries of Republic of Congo and Central African Republic, the park is part of a tri-national environmental initiative with the Sangha as a border river in the center of the protected area. The initiative also includes the Dzanga - Sangha Forest Reserve and the 1143 km ² large Dzanga - Ndoki National Park (Central African Republic ) and the Nouabalé - Ndoki National Park ( NouabalÚ - Ndoki, 4190 km ²) supplemented by the Nouable Ndoki Reserve ( Republic of Congo).

Flora

The flora of the park is in a semi - laubartigem evergreen and swamp forests. The forest is characterized by a huge diversity of plants.

Among the commercially exploited trees are Obeche, Sapele and azobe. At least 300 different species of trees are located throughout the area.

The deforestation is how often in developing countries a major problem. Lots of illegal tropical timber land beaten daily for shipment in Douala.

Fauna

Lobéké is home to the so-called charismatic megafauna. In the forest you will find forest elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, Great White nose monkeys, Grauwangenmangaben, giant forest hog, hogs, yellow -backed duiker and bongos.

The avifauna is remarkable. More than 283 bird species have been inventoried. There are a considerable number of gray parrots. In addition, you will find the rare Rotnasen Green Pigeon ( Treron calvus ) and rhinoceros birds ( Buceros rhinoceros ). Furthermore, one can observe in the reserve the Yellow -throated Cuckoo ( Chrysococcyx flavigularis ), the Gelbschnabeleule ( Otus icterorhynchus ) and the chestnut Reads (Halcyon badia ).

The illegal parrot fishing or bird poaching is a major problem, several thousand African gray parrots are annually collected and exported illegally.

There will also be located in an exceptional reserve herpetofauna. On Lobéké Lake there are, among other crocodiles.

Population

In Lobéké different ethnic groups including the Baka, Bangando and Bakwelle.

There is also the ethnic group of Bantu and immigrated groups.

Due to the dispossession of indigenous peoples without compensation or highlighting one perspective, the domestic population becomes increasingly depleted.