Chinko Nature Reserve

Chinko covers a very large area of eastern CAR where the Congo forest gives way to Sudanian savannah, and that transition is what makes it unusual: forest and savannah species occur in the same landscape, with elephant, giant eland, chimpanzee, lion and African wild dog all recorded. African Parks has managed it since 2014. Access is by air; there is effectively no road in. Rangers work from a small number of bases across an area that would take days to cross by vehicle.

History

Chinko was once a hunting reserve with thousands of buffalo, elephants and lions, but cattle grazing, the ivory trade and poaching from the 1980s to the 2000s took as much as 95 per cent of its wildlife. Erik Mararv's family took a hunting concession here in 2005, building airstrips and roads, and African Parks began managing the area with the government in December 2014; an agreement of April 2020 extended the core protected area to 24,335 square kilometres within a managed area of 55,000 (Wikipedia, Chinko).

What's there

• The forest-savannah transition - two biomes meeting in one landscape.
• The species mix - forest and savannah animals in the same country.
• The scale - a reserve covering a very large part of the east.
• The management - active protection running since 2014.

When to go

December to March is the dry season and the only practical window. Roads inside are impassable in the wet. Wildlife concentrates on water in the late dry season.

Good to know

There is no independent access; everything is arranged through the management. Charter flights are the only realistic way in. Facilities are field camps rather than lodges.

Nearby

Zemio is south, and Bangui is far west.

Key facts