Mbaéré-Bodingué National Park

Mbaéré-Bodingué National Park lies in the south-west of the Central African Republic, between the Mbaéré and Bodingué rivers in the sub-prefecture of Bambio, in the humid Guineo-Congolian forest of the Congo Basin. It covers 866 km² (334 sq mi), or 960 km² by another account, and was set up in 2007 by the ministry in charge of water, forests, hunting and fishing together with ECOFAC, a European Union programme for the forest ecosystems of Central Africa. The two rivers form a Ramsar wetland of international importance, and the park spans savanna, swamp, a vast flooded forest and semi-deciduous rainforest on dry ground; it lies within the protected-area complex of the Ngotto forest, whose buffer zone of 7,144 km² (2,758 sq mi) holds forestry, mining and hunting concessions and many villages. More than 115 mammal species, 13 of them primates, have been recorded, among them forest elephants, lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, buffalo, hippos, bongos, leopards, golden cats, giant and common pangolins and an endemic subspecies of the moustached monkey, together with the dwarf crocodile and more than 400 bird species, or over 320 by another count, including the grey parrot. About 20,000 people live in 70 forest settlements in the park area, among them Bolemba, Mbati, Boffi, Banda-Yanguéré, Pandé, Ngoundi and the nomadic BaAka, living by hunting, fishing, farming, small-scale mining and gathering raffia, fruit, nuts, honey, wax, palm wine, mushrooms and larvae.

Background

Mbaéré-Bodingué National Park lies in the south-west of the Central African Republic, between the Mbaéré and Bodingué rivers, and covers 866 km². The country's ministry in charge of water, forests, hunting and fishing created it in 2007 together with the former ECOFAC programme for Central African forest ecosystems. Its savanna, lowland floodplain forest and rainforest give a home to elephants, gorillas, buffalo, chimpanzees and hippos, as well as more than 400 kinds of bird, and several communities living in the area depend on hunting and fishing.

Source: Wikipedia, "Mbaéré Bodingué National Park"

The landscape

• The forests - a vast flooded forest beside dense rainforest on dry ground, between the two rivers.
• The rivers - the Mbaéré and the Bodingué, a Ramsar wetland of international importance.
• The forest wildlife - elephant, bongo and the great apes.
• The people - some 20,000 in 70 forest settlements, the nomadic BaAka among them.

When to go

December to February.

Practical notes

Some 20,000 people live in 70 forest settlements in the park area, by hunting, fishing, farming, small-scale mining and gathering, and the buffer zone around it holds forestry, mining and hunting concessions.

Nearby

The park lies within the Ngotto forest complex; Bambio is about 22 km to the west-north-west, M'Baïki about 93 km to the east and Bangui about 166 km to the east-north-east, in a straight line.

Key facts