Under the

ADVANCINGcanopy CONSERVATION IN 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 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 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 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 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 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. And to see mandrills, Batéké Plateaux National Park. Plans to that Lee White and WCS began a study Gabon’s iconic species, the best time is develop the park for tourism include the on the impact of logging in the reserve. between June and August, when super- provision of facilities for boating and Their work sparked a debate that con- troops of 1 000-plus individuals rafting on the river. tinued until the creation of the national congregate – the largest non-human park and the cancellation of the logging primate gatherings on earth. From mid- concessions within its borders. 2005 visitors will be able to observe a Like most visitors to Lopé, I arrived by group of these red-and-blue-faced train in the middle of the night. The primates that has been semi-habituated Trans-Gabon Railway runs between through years of study by WCS’s Kate Libreville on the coast and Franceville Abernethy and her team. in the south-east, along a line built in Deep in the Lopé forest and accessible the 1980s to transport timber and only by 4x4, Mikongo is a research manganese. Passengers were – and are – station where Giulia Graziani and her secondary. About five weekly passenger small crew have been working to trains run in each direction, but only one of these operates during the day. For whatever reason, and I heard many theories, the daylight hours are reserved for freight, while passengers travel at night, passing through hundreds of kilometres of spectacular, yet unseen, forest and river scenery. The Lopé Hotel, perched on a hill overlooking the Ogooué River, is a cheerful and tranquil place. There are 30 rooms, mostly small chalets spread amidst the manicured lawns and gardens. All the food is imported from France and pricey. The staff could be friendlier and the guides more motivat- ed, but that will come with time and training. Over breakfast one morning, the owner of the hotel, Emile Doumba (also Gabon’s Minister of Water and Spiders, such as this one in Minkébé National Park, are found Forests) and I discussed his ambitions in an extraordinary diversity of sizes and colours. for Lopé and, in my schoolboy French, I suggested that comfortable safari vehicles and well-trained guides were The stuff of legend more important than a golf course and French butter pats. To be fair, the t’s May 2002 and the president of Gabon, Mr El Hadj Omar Bongo, is attending a Gabonese have had little to do with meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. A quirky American who tourists and, apart from a few out- Ihas just walked across much of Central Africa, including all of Bongo’s country, has asked standing exceptions, East or southern for a few minutes of the president’s time. Michael Fay, a Wildlife Conservation Society African standards of service have yet to (WCS) biologist, tells Bongo about his gruelling 18-month ‘Megatransect’ and shows find currency here. The WCS, however, Bongo some photographs. The president, who has spent the bulk of his 35-year rule flying is already providing both formal and over his country’s forests, rivers, mountains and animals, is amazed by what he sees. informal advice. Several months later, back in Gabon, Fay and Lee White, head of theWCS Gabon The small part of Lopé National Park Program, are summoned to make a presentation to Bongo’s unsuspecting Cabinet. that is open to visitors is a striking blend Seizing the opportunity, they outline the development of a network of 13 national parks. of rolling savanna and thick forest It is ambitious to say the least – in total the parks would cover over 11 per cent of canopy. It also boasts one of the most Gabon’s area and encompass land already allocated to international logging concessions. important archaeological sites in In reality, they are hoping to get approval for the elevation of Lopé Reserve from a réserve Central Africa, with engravings thought de faune to a national park and perhaps to plant a seed that there are alternatives to unsustainable logging and mining. to date from 2500 BC and rock outcrops After they finish, the Minister of Water and Forests, Emile Doumba, an old friend of that harbour evidence of human habita- White’s, hands the president a folder containing a proclamation that would create Lopé tion here 400 000 years ago. I saw grey- National Park. Bongo is having none of it. There is confusion, followed by discussion. cheeked mangabeys and spot-nosed Finally it becomes clear. Bongo wants the full network, all 13 parks. Now. Within a few monkeys as well as black-casqued days Gabon has gone from a country without a single national park to having a 13-park wattled hornbills, but dipped out on network that covers 28 500 square kilometres. Breathtaking. elephants; our guide explained that during the early part of the year, when I

WWW.AFRICA-GEOGRAPHIC.COM 41 ABOVE Shy, semi-aquatic and usually habituate a group of gorillas. It is a task few days later, I flew to Valuable resources are being used to habituate gorillas in difficult to see, sitatunga are abundant that could take up to seven years, as Franceville with Liz Pearson, in Langoué Bai. differing habitats and social structures A head of the Projet Protection Lopé, with limited success. Valuable resources are being used make lowland gorillas more difficult to des Gorilles (PPG), a John Aspinall OPPOSITE, LEFT A new frond of habituate than their mountain gorilla Foundation programme based in Batéké Dicranopteris (Gleichenia) linearis bears the cousins. Odzala National Park in neigh- Plateaux National Park. The landscape by PPG to dehabituate gorillas, also with limited success aftermath of a thunder shower. Many bouring Republic of Congo lost its here in the south-east is quite different plants in Gabon are yet to be catalogued, habituated group to ebola a few years to that elsewhere in the country, and it is hoped that some may hold clues ago and the only other group of comprising rolling savanna-covered The creation of Batéké Plateaux vindo Station is a tiny logging to medical breakthroughs. habituated lowland gorillas lives in the hills that spread down to fingers of National Park has given PPG a degree of outpost in the centre of the embattled Central African Republic. forest along the riverbanks. There is an protection, but it has also brought new I Gabonese forest and the primary OPPOSITE, RIGHT Western lowland Since Mikongo’s inception it has been exceptional diversity of birds and it is pressures. The parks have to generate access point to the southern section of gorillas comfortably share Langoué Bai intended that tourism help fund the believed that the high plateau could revenue and to do so they must attract Ivindo National Park and Langoué Bai, with forest buffalo. They had almost programme, and the few guests who do hide Gabon’s last remaining lions. tourists. Batéké Plateaux already has a the forest clearing that Mike Fay called certainly never encountered humans visit accompany the research team into Deep in the park, PPG is attempting lot going for it – birders will come to see ‘the most significant discovery of the before Mike Fay arrived there in the forest. As gorilla habituation is still at to re-introduce orphaned baby and zoo- endemics such as Finsch’s francolin and Megatransect’. My 80-minute train August 2000. an early stage, the Pygmy trackers con- raised gorillas to the wild. The project’s Congo moorchat, and hikers to enjoy its journey had turned into a five-hour centrate on other aspects of the forest – original group of 14 gorillas is now rolling hills. But the undeniable draw- epic, the up side of which was an early we saw crowned and putty-nosed largely self sufficient, but it has proved card would be habituated gorillas. morning misty ride along Ivindo River. I monkeys and black colobus, and listened difficult to break their bond with It is a challenging argument. Valuable also had the good fortune to travel with to chimpanzees warning one another of humans and it remains to be seen resources are being used to habituate Isabel Orbell, wife of Ivindo National our presence. We learned about plants whether they can adapt successfully to gorillas at Mikongo in Lopé, so far with Park director Nigel Orbell, who invited that make good eye drops and which sap life in the wild. In August 2003, limited success. Valuable resources are me for breakfast when we eventually helps new mothers lactate, and we another group – seven gorillas born and being used by PPG to dehabituate arrived. Fortified by coffee, fresh French chewed on a local delicacy, a seed pod raised in the United Kingdom – was gorillas, also with limited success. bread and jam, I was given a lift in a called ozigo. A highlight was chancing flown into Batéké by presidential Should one of the PPG groups be made Land Cruiser to the park. upon the nest of the grey-necked helicopter. Re-introducing these available for tourists to view? Could this Along the way we passed several picathartes (see Africa – Birds & Birding, animals to the forest is a challenge – be reconciled with the goals of the John young men with large backpacks June/July 2004). Of course, we were also they were initially scared of birds and Aspinall Foundation? There are no easy dripping the blood of what I presumed looking for signs of gorillas, but with so the wind, and were on anti-malaria answers to the debate, but its resolution were duikers or other antelope destined much more to see, it was easy to forget medication as they have no natural could be linked to the long-term via- for the markets in Libreville. The that that was our primary goal. immunity to the disease. bility of the new national parks. Gabonese, like many Central

42 AFRICA GEOGRAPHIC • AUGUST 2004 WWW.AFRICA-GEOGRAPHIC.COM 43 Africans, have a taste for bushmeat, and addressing the trade is just one of the tasks facing those who have taken up the challenge of implementing what Lee White calls ‘President Bongo’s visionary decision’. We stopped to look at one of the most beautiful snakes I have ever seen – a sunbathing rhinoceros viper – then continued to the end of the road. A few months ago, Langoué Bai was a three- day hike from the road. Since the road has been extended, the hike takes just three hours but is still tough, involving a steep scramble up the slippery mountainside and then a more gentle walk through a forest of okoumé, moabi, padouk and other beautiful and ancient hardwoods. When Mike Fay first gazed on this 20- hectare clearing of grassland and swamp Even though the creation of the new national parks has effectively cancelled in the middle of the forest, he was 800 000 hectares of concessions, logging remains a major industry in Gabon. amazed. Elephants with massive tusks basked in the sun and drank from the mineral-rich spring. Buffalo, sitatunga Carbon-based economy and many smaller creatures came and went. Gorillas emerged from the dense Since 1967, Omar Bongo has presided over a stable and relatively wealthy African nation. vegetation and did not seem afraid of The exploitation of oil reserves and Gabon’s seemingly endless forests has resulted in a per him. Fay was familiar with large bais in capita income that is at least six times higher than the sub-Saharan average. But these other parts of Central Africa, but he economic mainstays are becoming increasingly unsustainable. In 1957 less than 10 per cent knew there was no record of anything of Gabon’s 20 million hectares of forests was allocated to logging concessions; by 1999 this like this in Gabon. had climbed to 75 per cent. The opening up of the forests has also been a key factor in the Today, three 10-metre-high viewing rapidly increasing bushmeat trade. platforms occupy discreet positions Although oil currently accounts for 80 per cent of the country’s export income, production from Gabon’s largest oil field is down 75 per cent on 1997 levels and, if no new along the bai’s edge and exhaustive fields are discovered, the current rate of production will exhaust Gabon’s reserves in 10 studies of gorillas, forest elephants and years. Therefore, in addition to emphasising further oil exploration and developing new buffalo are under way. The researchers forest regulations that lay the groundwork for sustainable logging practices in the future, are based at Langoué Camp, about three the government is trying to diversify its economy. Tourism, and the creation of the national kilometres away, and this was to be my parks, is a key element of that strategy. sleeping quarters for the week. On my first visit to the bai, we climbed a wooden ladder to one of the viewing platforms. ‘Look,’ whispered During the week I spent at Langoué, I Alain Moundounga, a WCS researcher, was able to act on a rare opportunity to ‘That’s Arnold walking towards the do something extraordinary. I noticed forest.’ Arnold is a young silverback and that the light over the bai was always at one of the 35 western lowland gorillas its most beautiful in the evening, and I that regularly visit Langoué. also wondered what the clearing looked Later in the morning other gorillas – like at dawn. I knew that 6 February was Norma, Carmen and Aida with her going to be a full moon and I wanted to baby, Addagio – sauntered into the bai spend the night at the platform. ‘Alone? and stayed for an hour or so. Tout seul? Si tu veux,’ said Alain and it Moundounga identifies each gorilla and was arranged. I took with me some meticulously records their activities. food, a bed roll and whatever con- Every evening, this information is fidence I could muster. At the usual forwarded to WCS by satellite phone hour the research team climbed down data transmission. It was amazing to from the platform and left for camp. think that the following day, the Bronx It was quiet. As the light faded, I took A resident of a BaKa Pygmy village on Zoo in New York would know how long photographs and listened. The sitatunga the Ivindo River prepares for a day’s Norma had spent feeding by the river. A left the bai and three elephants emerged fishing. Smoked fish and manioc forms similar programme, manned by from the forest, trumpeting in my the staple diet for most of the people Modeste Doukaga, has identified more direction. Several more followed and the living on the rivers near Minkébé than 700 individual forest elephants. moon rose, bathing the elephants in National Park.

WWW.AFRICA-GEOGRAPHIC.COM 45 ABOVE Early morning on the Nouna its clear light. The sounds of the night also an ambitious plan to develop a Some 18 months ago, the rivers kept mandrills. Tragically, in addition to ABOVE Many watching eyes and River in a pirogue with WWF’s Patrick were unfamiliar, but magical. With the totally ‘green’ eco-camp, with discreetly navigable by gold prospectors were exacting a human toll, three recent listening ears, and an ability to climb Koumbi. Regular anti-poaching patrols moon almost overhead, I crawled under place elevated walkways and viewing facilitating a burgeoning trade in outbreaks of the ebola virus wiped out and jump with ease through the have significantly reduced the flow of my mosquito net and watched an aerial platforms, that will ensure that Langoué bushmeat and ivory, but since the the local gorilla population. canopy make it difficult to get near bushmeat and ivory on the rivers of dog fight as dozens of bats swooped in Bai remains pristine. These new facilities introduction of WWF patrols there has More than 100 twisting kilometres mandrills. We were just lucky that a Minkébé National Park. to catch the moths attracted to the could be in place within two years and been a significant decrease in poaching. and two full days by pirogue from troop decided to leap from branch to beam of my torch. When I awoke at first will turn this into a ‘must visit’ We started our journey at Mayébout, a Mayébout, dodging submerged logs and branch a few metres ahead of us. OPPOSITE, LEFT ABOVE No more eager light, the mist hung in the trees destination for the world’s eco jet set. small village north of Makokou on the overhanging trees all the way, we to see us than we were to see it, this surrounding the bai, the sitatunga were For the more adventurous, rather rough upper Ivindo River. After checking in at reached the Bindoum River and the ABOVE LEFT Alone, I might easily have large black cobra glided quickly across shaking off the night chill by frolicking it now. Nouna Camp, WWF’s base station and landing point for the trail leading to the missed this colourful caterpillar, but the water and disappeared into the in the Langoué River, and a troop of the location of the park’s sole radio Minkébé gold camps. Here we found walking with the Pygmy trackers at vegetation on the far bank. moustached guenons were making a s it turned out, I had saved the transmitter, we turned off the Ivindo two old pirogues tied to a tree and a Mikongo in Lopé National Park was a racket in a nearby tree. The scene was wildest experience for last. Five into the much narrower and quieter mountain of beer bottles, signs of busier revelation and gave me an insight into breathtaking. When Alain and his A weeks into my exploration of Nouna. We would not see another times. At one stage there were more their deep understanding of the forest. assistant showed up later, their flask of Gabon, I flew to Makokou en route to pirogue for four days. Water monitors than 1 000 chantiers, or gold prospect- hot tea was welcome, but their arrival Minkébé National Park. There I met sunned themselves on branches over- ors, in the forest. Now there are fewer felt like the Normandy invasion. Sosthene Ndong Obiang, the regional hanging the river, grey-cheeked than 100. Langoué Bai is an important asset to director of WWF, which has taken mangabeys and other monkeys danced Minkébé gold camp was a revelation. Gabon. By enabling us to see animals responsibility for Minkébé, the largest of through the canopy and birds, includ- There were rows of neatly kept homes that are otherwise hidden in the forest, Gabon’s new parks. ing the spot-breasted ibis, were all fashioned from the bark of the okala it not only makes a contribution to Apart from nomadic BaKa Pygmies around. The birding here is probably the tree, manioc plants growing in every science, but at the same time has and a few hundred or so gold prospect- best in Gabon, but even Patrice Christy, clearing and shops stocked with Coca- tourist-attracting potential, with ors seeking their fortunes on its fringes, Central Africa’s leading birder, has only Cola, tinned foods, batteries, cooking attendant job creation and foreign this vast forested zone has seen no surveyed small parts of the area. oil, soap… How did it all get here? The exchange spin-offs. WCS is already permanent human population since the Minkébé also has sizeable populations same way we did. It’s expensive, but the working with Patrice Pasquier, who runs Fang people left early in the 20th of bongo – the largest and rarest of the people living here and sifting gold dust Mistral Voyages in Libreville, to bring a century. As there are virtually no roads, I forest antelopes – giant forest hog, from the earth earn the equivalent of few visitors into the bai. In early would be joining a pirogue team elephant, buffalo and sitatunga, as well US$50 per day and they can afford it. February 2004, I was the sixth. There is conducting a WWF anti-poaching patrol. as monkeys and large troops of One member of our team ran off

46 AFRICA GEOGRAPHIC • AUGUST 2004 WWW.AFRICA-GEOGRAPHIC.COM 47 and returned with a dozen fresh, warm trees just ahead, the branches started in the park, although they may not be baguettes – there was even a bakery. shaking and about 200 mandrills burst carried loaded on the river and are INFOTRAVEL The gold camps, where young men across the river and were gone in less subject to inspection by the anti- shovel orange soil into wheelbarrows to than a minute. We had seen some poaching team. The first rifle was be sifted, are in a narrow sliver of land wildlife on the river – monitor lizards, inspected and returned to the merchant, that juts into the park. The chantiers fell bee-eaters, kingfishers, darters, but an old chantier refused to part with stately trees to make way for manioc. It’s sitatunga, buffalo, monkeys and a few his weapon, holding it at arm’s length a compromise – if they could not grow snakes – but mandrills, until now, had over the river. There was a long, heated manioc, they would hunt more. eluded us. discussion. He had been on the river Hunting, indeed their very presence It may be a few years before tourists long before WWF came along and would here, is a delicate issue. Pauwel are travelling here regularly – if I was the not accept that the rules had changed. deWachter, the director of the WWF sixth tourist at Langoué, I was definitely Suddenly, frustrated and angry, he Minkébé project, told me, ‘The chantiers the first in Minkébé – but the rivers and threw the gun into the river. After trying are not allowed to prospect for gold in forests of Minkébé National Park hold fruitlessly to retrieve it and lacking the the park. They can hunt for subsistence, many riches. There are signs that the space to take the old man back with us only using snares and traps, and they gorilla population is slowly rebounding, for prosecution, we let common sense are not allowed to transport bushmeat and Nouna Camp in particular would prevail – we went our way, they went Game drives in Lopé National Park include visits to forest and savanna zones. out of the camps. They can only hunt make a great spot for tourist facilities. theirs and the rifle was gone. Tourism in Gabon is still in its infancy; if you go, arrive with reasonable approved species and they cannot Certainly, the future looks bright for President Bongo’s support of the expectations and you will leave with wonderful memories. harbour elephant poachers.’ That what is without doubt one of the national park network may have been evening we shared a meal with a father world’s great wilderness areas. swift and decisive, but it was not Getting there and around and his son, who had trapped a consultative. The management, Air Gabon operates twice weekly flights porcupine and water monitor for s in all Gabon’s parks, however, patrolling and maintenance of the parks between Libreville and , and franc is used and only currency issued by the dinner. In the name of journalism I had there are significant challenges. is being driven largely by non-Gabonese connects Libreville with , and a Banque des États de l’Afrique Centrale (Bank a bite of each and can report that they On our penultimate afternoon agencies – foreign NGOs such as WCS, number of African cities. Inter Air has a of Central African States) is valid. The A weekly service between Johannesburg and were good and bad respectively. on the river, we stopped a heavily laden WWF, Conservation International and economy is cash-based, although a few hotels Forest elephants can disappear in an Early the next morning, I headed back pirogue to inspect it. The owner, a the well-funded Congo Basin Forest Libreville, flies regularly between are accepting credit cards. Travellers’ cheques instant in the forests of Gabon and are upstream with our pirogier in search of a merchant returning to Minkébé gold Partnership. As elsewhere in Africa, if Libreville and Paris, and Air São Tomé, When(euros toare visitbest) can be cashed at local banks. all but impossible to observe except in bird’s nest I had seen the previous camp with supplies, was also the conservation efforts in Gabon are to Cameroon and link With its equatorial climate, Gabon can be Libreville with other destinations in Africa. the bais, near the rivers or as they evening. The morning mist hung over transporting two chantiers and two old succeed, they must have the support of visited at any time of year. The dry season, Travelling in Gabon can be time-consuming emerge, like this one, into the savanna the river, the sun broke through in rifles. Pauwel deWachter had explained local people. This is something that Lee when the mandrills congregate in super- and expensive. The Trans-Gabon Railway runs of Loango National Park. patches, it was quiet. Suddenly, in the that licensed weapons are still permitted White is acutely aware of. ‘President troops, is from June to August. The main between Libreville and Franceville with rains fall between October and May. Bongo decided to act at a strategic numerous stops along the way. Several moment in history with the full support Whale-watching is best from July through private airlines operate domestic flights, but September, and leatherback turtles come of his government. There was not time their schedules and routes often change so to consult everybody, but we do see this ashore to lay their eggs between November consult Mistral Voyages (see Useful contacts) and February. as a major priority.’ for the latest information. Road travel can be In over six weeks in Gabon I saw just difficult or impossible, depending on the five of the 13 new national parks. There season and the destination, although there is Useful contacts are undoubtedly more gems to be an extensive taxis-brousse (bush taxi) Patrice Pasquier and his wife Astrid run discovered and, although Gabon’s network. French is the official language and Mistral Voyages in Libreville. Patrice’s English ability to handle tourists is limited at English is not widely spoken. is excellent and his knowledge of the country the moment and the national parks will is unsurpassed. Tel. (+241-74) 77 79, e-mail inevitably experience growing pains, I [email protected] or go to have no doubt that the next few years Entry requirements www.ecotourisme-gabon.com will bring more exciting news from this A valid passport and visa, obtained in For flight information, South Africans extraordinary country. Its hidden forests advance from a Gabon embassy, are required. should contact Air Gabon on tel. (+27-11) 807 4011, while the Gabon embassy and unexplored rivers have been You should also carry proof of a yellow fever tel. (+27-12) 342 4376 will provide protected in the nick of time and we are vaccination. visa information. only just beginning to uncover opportunities to see and do things that Health and safety occur nowhere else on earth. Although Gabon is generally a very safe To find out more country, normal precautions should be taken, Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe: The Bradt especially at night in Libreville and other large Travel Guide by Sophie Warne is an excellent towns. Always carry your passport with you – source of practical information about random police checks, although infrequent, travelling in Gabon. require identity documents. Malaria The following websites may also be useful: prophylaxis is strongly recommended. www.internetafrica.com/tourisme (Gabon’s PPG’s efforts to return orphaned and zoo- national tourism office) raised gorillas to the wild was featured in Currency and costs www.gabonnationalparks.com www.wcs.org/centralafrica the March 2003 issue of Africa Geographic. Gabon is significantly more expensive than www.ecofac.org www.africa-geographic.com other sub-Saharan African countries. The CFA

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