Lopé National Park (French: Parc national de la Lopé) is a national park located in central Gabon. It is surrounded by the Ogooué River to the north and the Chaillu Massif to the south. The park covers an area of 4,912 square kilometers (1,897 square miles).

History

Lopé National Park and the area around it show that people have lived there for almost 400,000 years. The Ogooué River Valley has less forest than nearby areas, creating an open space that might have been a path for people moving from the coast to the center of Africa. The oldest tools from the Stone Age were found at Elarmékora in the middle of the valley, along with other Stone Age archaeological sites.

During the Neolithic period, about 3,500 to 2,000 years ago, the Bantu people may have used the valley during their expansion. They left behind polished stone axes and pottery. At that time, small villages were built on hilltops with large pits for waste.

Later, when iron-working began in the valley about 2,000 years ago, the hilltop villages grew larger. They had nearby iron furnaces, and farming became more common. More than 1,600 petroglyphs have been found from around the time iron was first used. However, the valley was abandoned between 600 and 1200 AD. It was later repopulated by the Okanda people in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The park became Gabon's first protected area when the Lopé-Okanda Wildlife Reserve was established in 1946. In 2007, the national park and the surrounding Lopé-Okanda landscape were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List because of its rich wildlife, the unique mix of savanna and forest, and the impressive petroglyphs in the area.

Ecology

Lopé National Park has drier weather than other areas of Gabon because it is located in the rain shadow of the Chaillu Massif. There is also a region near the Ogooué River with lower rainfall. These conditions create a mix of dense tropical rainforests and savannas. While most of the park is covered by monsoon forest, the northern part contains the last remaining grass savannas that formed in Central Africa 15,000 years ago during the last ice age. Over time, the boundary between rainforest and savanna has changed, with the rainforest growing into the savanna. However, the dry climate has allowed the savanna to remain in the northern part of the park.

Because of the park’s varied environment, it has an unusually high number of different plant and animal species. More than 1,550 plant species have been recorded so far, and many areas of the park still need to be studied.

A study of land snails in the park found 74 species from 12 different families.

The park is also important for protecting wildlife, including leopards. It supports healthy populations of animals that leopards hunt, such as red river hogs, African forest buffalo, and cane rats. Other mammals found in the park include the endangered giant pangolin and tree pangolin, which often share nests with small bats.

Lopé National Park is home to one of the world’s largest groups of wild primates, with more than 1,000 individuals. It is also the only protected area in the world where sun-tailed monkeys live in significant numbers. The number of forest elephants in the northern part of the park is among the highest in the world during certain seasons (1.5 per square kilometer).

The park has been recognized as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because it supports large numbers of many bird species.

Tourism and conservation

The park includes a small research station called Mikongo, which is managed by the Zoological Society London. The station is located in the village of Mikongo, which is also the source of its name. The area has facilities to serve tourists, such as several chalets and a large open-air dining room. The rainforest is only five meters away from the dining room. The park also houses the CEDAMM Training Centre, an international conservation education center operated by the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Due to global climate change, the dense forest ecosystem is spreading into the savanna ecosystem in the north. This expansion is reducing the variety of habitats in the park. To address this, controlled fires are held each year in the savanna. These fires help limit the spread of forest vegetation and ensure the right type of plants are available for the diet of the forest buffalo.