The great pyramids at Giza, EgyptElephants crossing the Zambezi river in Mana Pools National Park world heritage site, ZimbabweThe great mosque in the Old Towns of Djenne world heritage site, MaliBlack and white ruffed lemur, Rainforests of the Atsinanana world heritage site, Madagascar

Lope-Okanda National Park - Gabon

Map showing the location of Lope-Okanda National Park world heritage site in GabonArea:  4,913 km2

Inscribed: 2007

Criteria (mixed site): (ix) ecological processes; (x) biodiversity (and cultural criteria (iii), (iv))

Values: This park protects one of the most diverse tracts of rainforest in the Congo Basin, interspersed with very ancient man-made savannas, creating a mosaic of grasslands and forests.  The fauna includes 84 species of mammals and 405 birds, including many little-known forest species.  There are more globally threatened species than at any other Congo rainforest site, including western lowland gorilla, mandrill, chimpanzee, and the endemic suntailed guenon (which was only discovered in 1994).  The forest-savanna interface typical of central Gabon is well preserved in the park, and ecological and archaeological evidence shows that the area was inhabited almost continuously from late Palaeolithic times 350-400,000 years ago to the present. Scattered across the landscape is an exceptional archaeological record of successive cultures including the remains of Palaeolithic tools, Neolithic villages of 4,000 years BP and Iron Age metal-working sites from 2,500 years ago.

 

Slide Show for Lope - Okanda:


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Links:  Google Earth | UNEP-WCMC Site Description |Official UNESCO Site Details | Birdlife IBA

Scientist from the Wildlife Conservation Society using a radio-receiver to track Mandrills in the Lope-Okanda National Park Much of the Lope-Okanda landscape is a mosaic of fire-maintained grasslands and dense closed canopy forest Gallery forests along the main rivers and streams are used as 'highways' by vast troops of mandrills and serve as 'ecological corridors' for many other species in the Lope-Okanda ecosystem Logging around the periphery of the Lope-Okanda National Park presents an ever-increasing threat to the world heritage site

 

 

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