Lobeke National Park

Lobeke lies in the far south-east where Cameroon meets the Congo and the Central African Republic, and it forms the Cameroonian part of the Sangha Trinational, inscribed by UNESCO as World Heritage in 2012 together with the adjoining parks in the two neighbouring countries. Its feature is the bai: a natural clearing in the forest, wet and mineral-rich, where animals that are otherwise invisible in dense forest come out into the open. Observation platforms overlook several of them, and from these forest elephants, western lowland gorillas, bongo, sitatunga and large numbers of grey parrots can be watched. Baka communities live in and around the park and guide in it.

History

In 1991 a WWF biological assessment recommended protecting the Lobéké area and enlarging the unexploited 40,000 hectares to more than 400,000, and in October 1999 it was declared a national park, covering about 2,178 square kilometres. The same year the Yaoundé Declaration set up a three-country park agreement with the Dzanga-Sangha reserve in the Central African Republic and Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of the Congo; this Sangha Trinational is run under the Central African Forest Commission with support from WWF, GTZ and the Wildlife Conservation Society, and in 2012 the whole area, Lobéké included, became a World Heritage Site (Wikipedia, Lobéké National Park).

The landscape

• Forest bais - mineral clearings where animals come into the open.
• Observation platforms - the raised hides overlooking the clearings.
• Forest elephants and gorillas - the species the bais bring out.
• Baka guides - the communities who work in and around the park.

When to go

December to February and June to August, the drier windows. Four to six days including the journey. Everything must be arranged in advance through an operator; independent visits are not practical.

Practical notes

It is extremely remote: several days of rough road from Yaounde before the park is reached. Costs are high and trips must be organised well ahead. Malaria risk is serious. Sightings at the bais require sitting still for hours and are never guaranteed.

Nearby

Boumba Bek is west; the Congo and Central African Republic borders lie east and south.

Key facts