Campo Ma'an National Park

Campo Ma'an covers around 2,680 square kilometres in the far south-west, reaching from the Atlantic coast inland to the Ntem river on the border with Equatorial Guinea, and it is one of the few places where Atlantic rainforest still meets the sea in this part of Africa. Mandrills live here in numbers, along with forest elephants, buffalo, chimpanzees, gorillas and a heavy bird list. On the coast at Ebodje and Campo, marine turtles come ashore to nest between November and February, and a community project monitors them and takes visitors out at night. The Lobe falls, where a river drops directly into the sea, are on the road up to Kribi.

History

The Campo Wildlife Reserve, of 1,582 square kilometres, was set up in 1932 under an agreement with the Campo Forest Company, and the neighbouring Ma'an forest plantation of 990 square kilometres was added in 1980 to conserve the valuable okoumé tree. On 6 August 1999 the area became a forest management unit of 771,000 hectares, and in 2000 its protected core was made the Campo Ma'an National Park, as compensation for the expected damage of the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline (Wikipedia, Campo Ma'an National Park).

The landscape

• Rainforest meeting the Atlantic - the coastal edge of the park.
• Mandrills in the forest - one of the strongholds of the species.
• Turtle nesting at Ebodje - the community monitoring project on the coast.
• The Ntem river boundary - the southern edge on the border.

When to go

December to February for the drier weather and the turtle nesting season. Two to four days. Guides are compulsory in the park and arranged through the conservation service or operators.

What to expect

Rain is heavy for most of the year and tracks become impassable. Wildlife in dense forest is difficult to see. Facilities are basic and mostly on the coast. Turtle watching is at night and depends entirely on whether animals come ashore.

Nearby

Kribi is north; the Equatorial Guinea border lies south.

Key facts