Dimonika Biosphere Reserve

Dimonika covers about 1,360 square kilometres of the central Mayombe hills, some fifty kilometres from the coast, and was designated a biosphere reserve in 1988, which means it was set up to hold both forest and the people farming in it rather than to exclude them: villages, cocoa and coffee plots and hunting territories sit inside the boundary alongside the protected forest. Chimpanzees, western gorillas, forest elephants, forest buffalo and a long bird list use the wooded areas. The Mayombe is densely settled by Congolese rural standards, with migrants from neighbouring regions and countries living inside the boundary, which makes the balance between protection and livelihood the central question of how it is run.

Highlights

• The mixed model - forest and farming villages inside the same boundary.
• The Mayombe hills - the steep wooded country the reserve covers.
• The cocoa and coffee plots - the cultivation worked within the reserve.
• The chimpanzees - the population using the forest blocks.

When to go

June to September is the long dry season and the practical window. The forest is wet year round. Tracks are difficult after rain.

Practical notes

There is no visitor infrastructure and access needs local arrangement. Wildlife is unhabituated and hard to see. Logging and hunting pressure inside the reserve are ongoing problems.

Nearby

Pointe-Noire is southwest, and Dolisie is northeast.

Key facts