minkebePHASE THREE DEVELOPMENT NATIONAL PARK

VAST PRIMEVAL FOREST

Deep in the interior of Gabon, Minkebe is at the heart of ’s rainforest primeval - part of the second largest forest block remaining in the world - and home to a remarkable elephant population.

Dramatically domed granite mountains (called inselbergs) emerged millions of years ago. Great forest trees, many hundreds of years old, soar upward 50 meters, some crowned with wild orchid and fern gardens, or supporting huge twining lianas. It feels like an ancient place untouched by people. Remote parks like Minkebe and Mwagna are ideal for adventure tourism (hence some proposals for the two parks are interchangeable).

Wilderness tourism has great mystique. Minkebe, one of the planet’s last untamed frontiers, offers unique opportunities for tourism that will benefit and protect the area if done properly. While human population is low here, local people will benefit from jobs stimulated by tourism.

One of Africa’s largest rainforest wildernesses, Minkebe is a significant area for oxygen production and carbon sequestration - forests like this are critical for diminishing the negative effects of global warming. The area’s biodiversity is equally important as home to an estimated 30,000 Forest Elephants. Many charismatic species inhabit this forest, although some are KEY FACTS rarely seen, such as the magnificent Antelope, Giant Forest Hog, MINKEBE and Black and White Colobus. While funds from wilderness tourism will MINKEBE NATIONAL PARK benefit Minkebe National Park and neighboring peoples, the costs of maintaining and protecting the Park and buffer zone will need DATE CREATED: 2002 AREA: 7560 Km2 supplementation. Funds from the global community are needed, HIGHEST MOUNTAIN: Mt. Kokaméguèl, to maintain an asset valuable to the entire planet. 938m HABITATS: Primary Forest and Secondary Forest PROVINCE: Woleu-Ntem and Ogooué Ivindo STATUS: IUCN Critical Site for conservation, LEFT: Minkebe is believed to host Gabon’s largest population (estimated at 822 individuals poposed World Heritage Site by Dr. Phillipp Henschel in 2007)

FAR LEFT: Today the land remains barely touched by man. MINKEBE NATIONAL PARK 220 OYEM

The Oyem area offers another access point Groups of traditional cultures, Hunting Pressure to park visitors. The Minvoul area offers the including Baka pygmies, still live possibility of trips with the Baka pygmies and in the northern Minkebe area. river trips up to the sources of the Ntem River, in the heart of Minkebe.

INSELBERGS  River Families of the monstrous ung Mvo   and impressive Giant Forest Hog are hard to find and have INSELBERGS rarely been photographed by A geologist would say the domed researchers or tourists.  rock mountains are granite  inselbergs, left behind as nearby Minkebe has high numbers softer rock eroded millions of years of Forest Elephants, but  ago. The tourist would say they also considerable pressure offer panoramic vistas over the sea a from poaching along the im northern and eastern of mysterious forest around them. n a park boundaries. M

Mysterious crater - did a meteorite crash down here A few hundred gold miners millions of years ago? er can be found scattered in iv R small camps. a u O

The rainforest canopy is The Bongo, Africa’s most impressive largely unbroken for hundreds antelope, is among the more elusive of kilometers, thus providing inhabitants of Minkebe, found in an exceptional feeling of small numbers here. wilderness primeval.

r ive R WWF-funded anti-poaching guard a n patrols regularly inspect the u o periphery of the Park and in particular N the rivers and logging roads that provide a certain access to Minkebe’s core. Patrols try to protect elephants and River travel is the normal way to other large from poachers. access the Park as there are no roads leading to it and no landing strips.

221 MINKEBE NATIONAL PARK minkEBE DEEP IN WILD RAINFOREST national park The forest primeval of the Minkebe area is part of the largest wilderness area left in Equatorial Africa, offering potential as a model for a sustainability program integrating ecotourism and global climate change mitigation. Its rich diversity of mega-mammals has long been known; for this reason Minkebe was selected as a global priority by WWF (their Minkebe program began in 1997). The Park’s Forest Elephant population Low densities of gorillas and chimps remain after the Ebola virus is particularly high, while gorilla and chimp populations are low due to swept through the area and moved disease that swept through in the 1990s. on to Congo. The entire Minkebe-Mwagna-Ivindo area has value for adventure wilderness tourism. Part of the upscale nature tourism market wants the thrill of going deep into the heart of Africa’s mysterious rainforest, with the possibility of discovering elusive forest creatures such as , giant pangolins, and forest antelopes in a natural, undisturbed world. Landing on and exploring a remote Minkebe inselberg is an adventure akin to a lunar landing. Going to the proposed Deep Forest Nightlodge and wandering safely in the canopy to see nocturnal species would be unique to Minkebe. The possibility of exploring wild rivers and meeting ancient Forest People futher enhances the value of Minkebe for tourism. The Minkebe rainforest is wild and N (Groups of Baka Pygmies are in areas east and west of the Park.) largely uninhabited, offering great opportunity for nature tourism.

Nearby Odzala NP in the Republic of Congo also represents part of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, supported by joint major initiatives of the European Union, France, USAID and USFWS, the UN Foundation/Unesco, and private donors. MINKEBE

While certain primate species have good-sized populations, chimpanzees and gorillas have had problems with disease.

MINKEBE NATIONAL PARK 222 Exploring Forest Frontiers

The Minkebe area is one of the wildest and least understood places in Africa’s forests. Life in Minkebe’s canopy treetops and on isolated rock inselbergs lie virtually unstudied. Flora and fauna of the Ogooué basin and Congo basin cross over here, creating a diverse array of species.

RIGHT: Some trees are hundreds of years old, providing oxygen and homes for thousands of smaller plants, birds, mammals, butterflies, and other invertebrates. Ancient rock outcrops covered with grass dramatically punctuate the forest.

“The seemingly endless rainforest canopy at Minkebe is a survivor of a once much larger African rainforest, thus all the more important to protect for its role in slowing global warming.”

RENÉ HILAIRE ADIAHENO PARCS GABON

ABOVE: Euphorbia and other specialist plants growing on rocks don’t need to compete with forest trees for light but need unique adaptations to survive this harsh exposed environment.

The area’s vast forest is large enough to be positively affect global climate change. rare forest MYSTICAL DEEP FOREST SPECIES

Minkebe is a place for tourists to find hidden treasures in the deep forest, as many vertebrate populations exist in this undisturbed environment. Here visitors might see elephants, giant pangolins, aardvark, leopards, buffaloes, pythons, five species of , , crowned eagles, slender-snouted crocodiles, otters, and a variety of monkeys.

Present though rarely seen, elusive Bongo Antelopes roam the Minkebe forest, along with the world’s “most beautiful” and “ugliest” . The beauty, the , is crisply marked russet, black, and white, with long elegant ear tassels that possibly serve as visual tools to help keep large family groups (sometimes several dozen animals) together in thick forest. People find the huge facial lumps of the all-black Giant Forest Hog as unattractive as curious. These two species are high on the list of animals to see for wildlife aficionados. The advent of tech tourism will enable tourists to see more animals.

Surveys on Forest Elephant populations throughout the Minkebe forest area (including Cameroon and Congo) indicate that high numbers of elephants are found in the Park, with the highest density furthest from human settlements and roads. Among all MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants) sites studied, data indicate that Minkebe has the highest elephant population in the protected areas network of . However, elephant poaching is heavy, particularly in the northern area.

“This area has the largest Forest Elephant population in the Congo Basin.”

PAUWEL DE WACHTER MINKEBE PRINCIPAL TECHNICAL ADVISOR, WWF MINKEBE

LEFT TO RIGHT, FROM TOP: Minkebe’s forest hosts two wild species – Red River Hogs and Giant Forest Hogs, although the two are rarely seen. Beautifully-striped Bongo antelopes, Africa’s most elusive antelopes, are rarely seen except with camera traps (as photographed here). They come to mineral-rich bais at night and sometimes appear in the inselberg grass meadows. Minkebe has a high population of Forest Elephants, which are easier to see. Two species of seed- and flower-eating monkeys are found high in the canopy. The first, the spectacular De Brazza Monkey, is widespread across East and Central Africa. The other is the Satanic or Black Colobus, a strange and little-known monkey with pointed ears - rarely seen, with a range mainly restricted to coastal forests.

MINKEBE NATIONAL PARK 224 Trust Funds for Nature Ngoto Dja Boumba-Bek As global reservoirs of carbon, biodiversity, and wilderness values, the Dzanga- Mengame Sangha great National Parks of Gabon’s interior (Minkebe, Mwagna, Lopé, and Nki Ivindo), and the wild forest between them planned for logging, need consideration by the global donor community for long-term support. “The great rainforest of the Congo Minkebe These parks will be important for ecotourism in Gabon but tourism alone may not generate sufficient funds to carry the cost of park operation and Basin is the lungs of Europe ” Odzala local jobs. Among other possible funding plans, an independant Trust Fund for Parks needs consideration - as does a fund for carbon sequestration. DR. LEE WHITE Mwagna WCS GABON The World Bank’s innovative $4 million trust fund for Bwindi National Ivindo Park in Uganda was a success and is now being followed in the tri-national area of Cameroon, Congo, and Central African Republic. Gabon’s new Lopé TRIDOM: The Tri-national Dja/Odzala/Minkebe Forest National Parks Law lays the legal and fiscal framework for the (WWF) establishment of a fund for the 13 National Parks created in 2002.

CARBON SEQUESTRATION

This region represents a vast, undisturbed rain forest that plays dual key roles as a global reserve of standing carbon and the “watertower” of the Ivindo basin, whose extensive swamps soak up rainfall like a massive sponge and then gradually release clear, filtered water throughout the year.

It is only logical that future legislation beyond the Kyoto treaty will acknow- ledge the effort made by Gabon by setting aside over 10% of its land area to protect biodiversity and standing carbon stocks in part to mitigate global climate change.

Scientists are just beginning to inventory forests regarding capability for carbon sequestration. KEY protecting the minkEBE Forest Cameroon GABON PARKS (1) VILLAGE ZONE (3) SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF A MAJOR RAINFOREST BLOCK PARK AREA VILLAGE ZONE

PARK INFRASTRUCTURE (1A) OFF LIMITS ZONE (4) ENTRY NO GO ZONE The extensive rainforest of northeastern Gabon is a great global reservoir OFFICE BUFFER ZONE (5) for both carbon and biodiversity, thus a priority for the world to protect. PATROL BUFFER Additionally the area has notably high numbers of elephants, long an RESEARCH TRANSPORTATION object of protection efforts by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and a CITES AIRSTRIP Hunting Pressure MAJOR ROAD CONCESSIONAIRE ZONE (2) priority. WWF’s Pauwel De Wachter has led an important effort to protect 5km CONCESSION MINOR ROAD Minkebe and can help ensure the Park’s integrity for the future. Problems Buffer Zone H PROPOSED HOTEL SITE UNIMPROVED with hunting from adjacent small gold mining camps could have long-term PROPOSED ROAD H PROPOSED HOTEL negative impacts on the Park unless monitored. (Site to be Found) TRAIL H EXISTING HOTEL PROPOSED TRAIL C PROPOSED CAMP SITE TRAIN Innovative international joint support through the Congo Basin Forest C EXISTING CAMP SITE TRAIN STATION Partnership (CBFP) provides a major initial impetus to enable African AIRSTRIP rainforest nations to protect their important global resources. Minkebe National Park is part of a multi-national effort to protect a major transborder rainforest block, the Tri-national Dja Odzala Minkebe Forest P (TRIDOM). This forest, spread over northern Gabon, southeastern ANCIENT POPULATIONS Cameroon, and northwestern Congo covers 150,000 kmÇ and serves as In the past, this area was quite heavily the Congo Basin’s major stronghold for large wildlife. A concerted populated. Trees that have grown Congo the of Republic up around the old settlements are landscape conservation effort takes place with funding from USAID, EU, particularly attractive to gorillas. the French Government, USFWS, WWF, UNDP/GEF, UNESCO, and the UN Foundation. Local economic development is needed to diminish rural Old Site of Minkebe poverty. The ecotourism vision proposed here can help provide local jobs and incentives for conserving animals, as well as partial funds for MEGATRANSECT managing the Park - but creative international solutions must be sought to Dr. Michael Fay’s historic Megatransect GOLD MINING CAMPS passed directly through Minkebe Park This area is rich in alluvial gold which ensure continued support for this important global resource. and its inselbergs. draws miners to camps along the rivers. The environmental impact is of some concern.

Hunting Pressure

BELOW: Two major issues for protecting the Minkebe forest are elephant poaching and gold mining. The MIKE survey in the northern periphery of the Park, close to Cameroon, found as many as 40 elephant carcasses/1000km2. Patrols around the Park perimeter have had a demonstrable effect in slowing Route of the Megatransect elephant poaching but require ongoing vigilance, especially on the north border near Cameroon. Transborder collaboration with Congo and Cameroon is quickly developing. Outside the Park, gold mining 5km H could become problematic if it were to expand or to allow mercury and other toxins into pristine rivers. Buffer Zone WWF ACTIVITY IN MINKEBE WWF has played a major role in protecting

this area. Their extensive patrols and training MINKEBE for local people have had a significant effect.

Inselberg Area INSELBERGS POTENTIAL HOUSEBOATS Spectacular rock inselbergs in this area H Houseboats along the river present an opportunity to carefully develop might be one way to gain access a unique tourist destination. to the Park while leaving the H environment relatively untouched. Inselberg Area POSSIBLE DAM N In the future, a dam may be built to P generate power for processing the vast quantities of iron in this area. 051015 20 R

Km MINKEBE NATIONAL PARK 226 A Unique Lodge for Night Viewing

There would be a lot to see at the Deep Forest Nightlodge. Guests would have the luxury of spending late hours in the Deep Forest Bar where one- way glass hides visitors from view, allowing forest antelopes, hogs, elephants, several kinds of , and even predators to feel comfortable getting up-close. The area can be “bugged” with inconspicuous cameras and listening devices to allow people to secretly watch the animals. A number of hidden cameras in the area will enable guests to see everything that’s happening with their own eyes, and on large-screen monitors in the bar. Guests can return to their room, perched on the rock above by the aerial stairs and walkway that keep guests well above elephants.

A sightings log with digital photos could be updated each night so that it can be seen online around the world. No other place will be exactly like the Deep Forest Nightlodge.

ABOVE: While many guests may hope to see a Leopard or Bongo Antelope coming for a drink of water, BELOW: The Nightlodge would be perched for panoramic views to capture the grandeur of the ABOVE: While it is worth the wait for big night animals to emerge in the moonlight-toned spotlights others will hope for close views of a rarely seen Marsh Mongoose or a hairy family of Giant Forest landscape with immediate access to the action in the forest below. around the Deep Forest Bar observatory, more than six kinds of owls are best found with Hogs in the moonlight. nightscopes. Pottos, bushbabies and other small mammals who come for nectar might be seen by nightscopes or by fixed, remote-focus rotated spycams.

VISION

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227 MINKEBE NATIONAL PARK deep forest nightlodge NIGHT ACTIVITIES IN A UNIQUE LOCATION VISION

The proposed Deep Forest Nightlodge would perch alongside one of Minkebe’s spectacular great rock inselbergs (or a similar location in the buffer zone). A lodge just atop the forest canopy would enable panoramic vistas for tens of kilometers, and intimate experiences exploring the rock and forest below. There is much to do by day – hikes on the inselberg and through rainforest trails with guides (each guest carrying personal telemetry locators), or remote monitoring of camera traps from the comfort of the lodge. Guests may choose birding or monkey watching from a walkway that descends from above the treeline into the canopy, and then zigzags to the forest floor far below.

Much of the action, however, will be at night. If a real saline cannot be found at the base of an inselberg, a faux bai can be created here (as done at Treetops and The Ark in ) to provide animals with the salts they require. Most of Minkebe’s mammals are naturally nocturnal so special observation posts, “faux” moonlight, night-adjusted “spycams,” and night goggles could enable lodge guests to see wildlife in total darkness without disturbing the animals. After dinner visitors can descend the walkway to the comfortable ground-level Deep Forest Bar to relax in an observatory with a wide view over the lighted forest clearing. Here they WCS & cresolus may wait for many hours to see if the elusive Bongo Antelope comes in that night...or perhaps a family of elephants will appear instead. MINKEBE

A mini camera near a nectar feeder would enable close views of normally hard-to-see Bushbabies.

ABOVE AND LEFT: The Deep Forest Bar would have a wide view for a hundred meters into a clearing under the forest trees, enabling guests in chairs - comfortable enough for dozing - to spend many hours to see what arrives in the night. This will be a deluxe version of places in Congo where rare forest antelopes might be seen at night. The Deep Forest Bar will be equipped with hidden cameras and other elements to see night species up-close. MINKEBE NATIONAL PARK 228 Exploring Remote Rivers

Guests will have unexpected adventures while exploring the magnificent rivers around Minkebe. Experiences can include interactions with wildlife and with people like local fishermen and pygmy trackers in the forest. The Ntem River is excellent for the viewing buffalo or elephant in open clearings along the headwaters, though it can take four days to get there. It will be a visit tourists never forget.

TOP LEFT: Cassin’s Flycatcher only lives along equatorial African rivers.

LEFT: The faraway Minkebe area is a beautiful place, inhabited only by a few fishermen.

RIGHT: Time may have stopped in parts of interior Gabon. Here a member of a local family mends fishing lines. Authentic Africa is what the knowledgeable traveler is looking for on Gabon’s remote rivers.

LOWER RIGHT: Sitatunga might also be seen crossing the stream.

BELOW: Suddenly the pirogue rounds a corner to find both tourist and elephant surprised.

229 MINKEBE NATIONAL PARK deep forest experiences ESCAPE TO A MAJESTIC PLACE FAR IN THE INTERIOR VISION

As coastal and central sites become developed for tourism, some travelers will want to go deeper into the interior. Minkebe, with spectacular rock outcroppings and interior wildlife, offers the lure. A lodge investor here will need to examine markets and costs, and be prepared for considerable investment to make an experience good enough that guests will happily pay high prices for exclusive access to one of the world’s last great rain- forest wildernesses. While construction costs will be high (for transport of materials deep into Gabon), the ability to create a powerful, unique visitor experience capable of drawing international attention, like the proposed Deep Forest Nightlodge, justifies high prices. The affluent tourist market expects special comforts and treatment. Additionally it will be critical for the lodge investor to work with trained biologists to guarantee the partial acclimation of animals before opening.

The Nightlodge can be built of prefabricated lightweight waterproof units and transported in pieces to facilitate construction. Composting toilets and RIGHT: A spectacular sundown with friends on an inselberg floating above the forest would other sustainable elements of Parcs Gabon construction are required. add to a wonderful experience at Minkebe. Minkebe is so distant from roads that getting visitors here could be seen as BELOW: By day the view is equally powerful and may be interrupted by huge eagles soaring WCS & cresolus either a liability or an opportunity for hotel operators. The trip should be over the canopy or monkeys in distant trees. viewed by both operators and guests as an adventure integral to a deep forest getaway experience, a romantic way for guests to feel that they are escaping civilization to one of the most distant places on the planet. Most visitors will come by beautiful river trips, for which boats must have silent motors to enable guests to observe undisturbed wildlife en route. The VISION optimal - but expensive - way to arrive is by helicopter, skimming just over the treetops of seemingly limitless primeval forest, then dropping down on top of the lodge’s great rock inselbergs for a dramatic arrival. Guests would then depart by river, stopping to look for elephants and to meet local people. Travel is integral to the experience. MINKEBE

While some would come by boat, the most exciting way to arrive at the Deep Forest Nightlodge is a dramatic helicopter landing on top of an inselberg. Minkebe is so distant and the rock pinnacles so fascinating in the sea of green trees that landing here may be akin to landing on the moon.

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MINKEBE NATIONAL PARK 230