Salonga National Park

In the Congo basin's green heart, Salonga spreads Africa's largest tropical rainforest protected area - a UNESCO wilderness the size of small countries, roadless by definition, threaded only by blackwater rivers that expedition pirogues climb for days. Its fame is the bonobo: the forest shelters a major share of the world's population of our gentlest great-ape relatives, alongside forest elephants, Congo peacocks and dwarf crocodiles in swamp forest science still inventories. Visits are research-adjacent expeditions arranged with the park - among the planet's least-travelled great wildernesses, within the country's standing arranged-travel frame.

Background

The park began in 1956 as the Tshuapa National Park and took its present boundaries in 1970. It covers about 36,000 km2 across Sankuru, Kasaï, Equateur and Mai Ndombe provinces. UNESCO inscribed it in 1984 for its large block of relatively intact rainforest and its habitat for many rare species. Poaching and housing construction put it on the endangered list in 1999, and better conservation took it off again in 2021. Since 2015 the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature have run it jointly. In the southwest, 85% of 735 identified plant species depend on animals to spread their seeds, and 56 fish species live in the park's waters.

Source: Wikipedia, "Salonga National Park"

Highlights

• The bonobo forests - the great stronghold of our rarest relative.
• The blackwater rivers - pirogue highways into the roadless green.
• The Congo peacock - the basin's shy endemic jewel.
• The swamp-forest scale - wilderness by the small-country unit.

When to go

The drier windows - roughly June to August and December to February - ease river travel; every visit is an arranged expedition on the park's terms.

Things to know

Every visit is arranged wholly through the park and specialist partners. Comforts are river-camp truth; bonobo sightings are probabilistic gifts, and the forest itself is the guaranteed monument.

Nearby

The Congo river's middle reach and Mbandaka.

Key facts