Under the ADVANCINGcanopy CONSERVATION IN GABON Two years ago the passion and efforts of a few scientists, coupled with a president’s unprecedented action, made conservation history. In the space of a few months, Gabon went from having not a single national park to being the proud possessor of no fewer than 13. It was heady stuff, but the hard work was just beginning. Robert J. Ross went to take a look for Africa Geographic. TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROBERT J. ROSS 34 AFRICA GEOGRAPHIC • AUGUST 2004 hen President Bongo boldly warmly, despite having just said to his CAMEROON mandated the formation of friends that they had paddled far ATLANTIC W an ambitious network of enough that they wouldn’t see or hear OCEAN national parks, he knew that Gabon’s anyone else for a few days. Less than a economic mainstays, oil and forestry, minute later the whine of our engine were not sustainable and that shattered the silence. EQUATORIAL conservation and tourism could be good We talked for hours about Gabon’s 1 GUINEA for the future of his country. The parks new parks and he suggested where I contain a wealth of treasures, all the raw might see Loango’s turtles, ghost and material needed for a successful tourism fiddler crabs, rosy bee-eaters, skimmers industry. To make the new parks into and terns, as well as hallucinating 6 more than paper creations, though, elephants and surfing hippos. Loango 7 6 Makokou rules and regulations must be has kilometres of uninhabited beaches 9 formulated, staff appointed, roads built, where buffalo wander only metres from Libreville infrastructure developed and the the surf, hippos venture into the sea and Equator 2 environment preserved. The prospects leatherback turtles come ashore to lay 8 are exciting, but not without pitfalls. I their eggs. Just offshore, humpback and Lopé was fortunate to be among the first to killer whales are seasonally in abund- go and see what is happening. ance, and inland the savanna is home 3 Loango has GABON10 kilometres of Moanda ૺ Franceville uninhabited beaches 12 LEKEDI 5 where buffalo 4 11 wander only metres Gamba from the surf, hippos REPUBLIC KEY TO NATIONAL PARKS OF 1 Minkébé 8 Pongara Trans-Gabon railway 2 Ivindo 9 Mwagné venture into the sea Roads CONGO 3 Lopé 10 Waka National boundaries 13 4 Loango 11 Mouklaba-Doubou 5 Batéké Plateaux 12 Birougou and leatherback National park 6 Monts de Cristal 13 Mayumba 7 Akanda turtles lay their eggs Featured national parks In 2002, with the stroke of a pen, President Omar Bongo signed into being an unprecedented Flying to Libreville, the capital of the to red river hog and sitatunga, as well as 13 national parks, covering 11 per cent of Gabon’s total surface area. Two years later, photographer/writer former French colony, was relatively the buffalo that stray onto the beach. I easy. Tracking down Mike Fay, the man was amazed at the potential and Robert Ross spent six weeks exploring these five. whose passion for the country and its daunted by the fact that I only had five natural wealth had much to do with the more days in what he said might just be 1 At 7 570 square kilometres, of course, the spectacular western lowland gorillas, is an abundance of whales, establishment of the national parks, ‘the best park in Africa today’. Minkébé National Park is one Langoué Bai that lures forest and between July and August, dolphins and turtles. proved far trickier. Fay, who finished his According to Lee White, the affable of Gabon’s largest protected elephants, sitatunga, western large numbers of mandrills can ABOVE On the beaches of Loango 3 200-kilometre ‘Megatransect’ walk just British biologist who is head of the areas and covers an almost lowland gorillas and buffaloes be seen. 5 Batéké Plateaux National National Park, ghost crabs chase south of what is now Loango National Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) uninhabited tract of rainforest to its mineral-rich waters. Park claims 2 050 square receding waves into the sea, then turn Park, has made his home (a small tent Gabon Program, Loango is indeed supporting large populations of 4 The 1 550-square-kilometre kilometres of open grassland, and run as the next ones come ashore. pitched on the deck of a friend’s Gabon’s ‘jewel in the crown’. Tourist elephants, bongos, mandrills, 3 The 5 000-square-kilometre Loango National Park which may contain Gabon’s last houseboat) near the new Loango Lodge. activities already include walks, game giant pangolins and buffaloes. Lopé National Park supports protects forests, savanna, remaining lions. The landscape, PREVIOUS SPREAD With the creation of Several days before my arrival, he and drives, kayaking, fishing and whale- almost 60 per cent of Gabon’s lagoons and kilometres of quite different to the other Ivindo National Park, dawn in Langoué two companions had set out on what watching. It’s not unusual to see 2 The 3 000-square-kilometre recorded bird species and coastline. Elephants, buffaloes national parks, supports an Bai stands a chance of being as tranquil was for him a relatively easy two-week elephants on the beach, a sight that is Ivindo National Park contains contains some of the oldest rock and hippos are known to exceptional diversity of birds and in the future as it is today. Sitatunga are kayaking trip. I finally caught with up sure to have visitors reaching for their two of the most impressive engravings in Central Africa. wander onto its beaches and, its rolling hills are sure to find among the first diurnal animals to stir in them by speedboat at Akaka, the site of cameras. Be warned though – keep well waterfalls of Central Africa and, There is a sizeable population of depending on the season, there favour among hikers. the morning. a future fly camp. Fay welcomed me clear of them. Loango’s elephants ᮣ 36 AFRICA GEOGRAPHIC • AUGUST 2004 feed on iboga, a hallucinogenic plant guides this year, further strengthening that Fay says makes them particularly the relationship between the com- edgy and aggressive. He should know; munity and Operation Loango. one almost killed him two years ago. My week at Loango Lodge was superb. Management of the northern half of Sea kayaking in the lagoons one Loango National Park is being driven by morning was followed by an amble ‘Operation Loango’, a partnership along the shore spent dodging ghost between the government, WCS and the crabs and elephants; a walk in the forest privately owned Société de Conserva- looking for turacos, mangabeys and tion et Développement (SCD), which chimpanzees preceded an afternoon runs the Loango Lodge. Rombout boat trip to a small island where we Swanborn, a shareholder of SCD, says searched for the Loango weaver, fruit that all revenue generated through bats and a large cobra known to live Operation Loango’s sustainable eco- there. We also kept our eyes peeled for tourism activities (such as the lodge) is the three crocodile species that inhabit channelled directly into protecting and these waters, reportedly the only place managing the wildlife on which it in the world where the dwarf, slender- depends. It funds a range of WCS nosed and Nile crocodiles occur in projects that include animal and overlapping habitats. A game drive archaeological research, as well as further south started with the relatively cleaning up an 80-kilometre stretch of uncommon sighting of two young To see mandrills, the best time is between June and August, when super-troops of 1 000-plus individuals congregate beach. Ocean currents have been lowland gorillas loping across the dumping flotsam along Gabon’s savanna and progressed to seeing shoreline for years; in six months several large groups of red river hogs, Operation Loango has removed vast countless buffalo, elephants and a quantities of it, including thousands of leopard. Sadly, I didn’t have time to visit plastic bottles – and three one-kilogram the nearby gorilla orphanage or the iron packages of cocaine! church designed by Gustav Eiffel, nor to WCS also supervises a commercial try my luck at the world-class sport fishing patrol team and anti-poaching fishing that is on offer. and guiding duties. Many of the functions are being performed by ‘eco- y next stop was Lopé guides’, 11 local residents who have National Park, an area that been trained in the use of maps, M has been protected in one compasses and GPS and have been way or another for nearly 50 years and taught the scientific, French and in was the park on which Fay and White some cases English names of flora and had pinned their hopes when they fauna in the park. Several of these presented their ambitious conservation recruits are former poachers – one of the programme (see box, page 41). Lopé is most committed eco-guides has more fantastically rich; more than 1 500 plant than 80 per cent of his monthly salary species and nearly 60 per cent of the drawn against a fine he received for 680 bird species recorded in Gabon have shooting an elephant less than a year been seen here. There has been a ᮣ ago. Were it not for the eco-guide programme, he would be in jail and his A female mandrill – smaller than the male family would be destitute. There are and with a less brightly coloured face – plans to train at least five more eco- holds her baby tightly. 38 AFRICA GEOGRAPHIC • AUGUST 2004 research station in the area for more was there, the elephants move deeper Thick forest hugs the Mpassa River in than 20 years and it was here, in 1989, into the forest.