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

Sangha Trinational – CAR, Cameroon & Congo

Map showing the location of the Sangha Trinational world heritage site (Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in Congo, Dzanga-Ndoki N.P. in Central African Republic and Lobeke N.P. in Cameroon)Area:  7,542 km2

Inscribed: 2012

Criteria:(ix) evolutionary processes   (x)  biodiversity

Location and Values:  The Sangha Trinational is a major protected area complex in the tropical rainforests of the Congo Basin.  It encompasses three adjoining national parks in the border area between the Central African Republic (Dzanga-Ndoki National Park), Cameroon (Lobeke NP) and Congo (Nouabale-Ndoki NP) set within a more extensive forest landscape.

The tropical rainforests of this region lie at the northern headwaters of the mighty Congo River in a relatively flat landscape punctuated by shallow drainage lines.  There is a wide variety of forest types, seasonally flooded areas, swamps and mud-brown rivers.  Forest elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, buffalo and an enormous diversity of other fauna inhabit the area.  One of the most striking features of this forested landscape is the occurrence of swampy clearings known as ‘bais’, where animals congregate in great numbers.  These bais provide a rare opportunity to see and study some of the iconic rainforest animals, which would otherwise remain hidden.  These are areas where elephants come to dig for salt and other minerals, and to drink, meet, fight and play.  Their frequent visits help maintain the open clearing and allow its marshy grasses to flourish, which in turn creates favoured conditions for gorillas, buffalo, bongo and other species.

Slideshow of the Sangha Trinational:   The slideshow features a superb portfolio of photographs taken at the Dzanga Bai in Central African Republic by Thomas Aveling.  It starts with a series on western lowland gorillas in the herbaceous vegetation, then some of the other Bai visitors, including elephants, bongo and buffalo.  The slideshow includes pictures of some of the less conspicuous fauna – a damselfly, forest tortoise, and gabon viper in the dried leaves on the forest floor (can you spot it?).  There follows a series of pictures from Nouabale-Ndoki National Park (Congo) by Peter Howard, with some riverine scenes and features of the forest landscape seen from the air.  The final pictures illustrate some of the main threats to all three reserves, particularly in the buffer zones where industrial logging is carried out extensively and commercial hunting is undertaken to supply bushmeat to far-off urban markets. 

Google Earth View:  To view satellite imagery of the Sangha Trinational on Google Earth, click here.  This opens a new window, so when you are finished, just close the Google Earth page and you will be straight back here to continue browsing.  Unfortunately the images of this area are rather poor, with a lot of cloud cover, but it is possible to see some of the main landscape features, including the swamp forests, rivers and drainage, and to see the extensive networks of logging roads and related development around the fringes of the area.

Links to other places in the Forests category:  Dja  /  Lope-Okanda  /  Okapi  /  Salonga  /  Tai 

Other Links: Google Earth |  Official UNESCO Site Details | Birdlife IBA (Lobeke) | Birdlife IBA (Nouabale-Ndoki) | Birdlife IBA (Dzanga-Ndoki)

Western lowland gorillas are an endangered species that is relatively abundant in the Sangha Trinational UNESCO world heritage site A solitary elephant mingling with forest buffalo at Dzanga Bai in the Sangha Trinational UNESCO world heritage site Forest elephants at Dzanga Bai in Central African Republic, part of the Sangha Trinational UNESCO world heritage site Dugout canoes provide the main means of transport in the Sangha Trinational UNESCO world heritage site 

 

 

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