The Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park (NNNP) covers an area of approximately 4,200km2 in the northern Republic of Congo.  Combined with the Lobéké National Park (2,700 km2) in Cameroon, the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park (1,600 km2) in Central African Republic, and adjacent logging concessions, the Sangha River Trinational protected area extends over approximately 35,000 km2 and harbours the world’s most important populations of forest elephants, red river hogs, bongo antelope, and is one of the last remaining strongholds for western lowland gorillas and chimpanzees in Africa. WCS’s latest great ape surveys described some of the highest known densities of gorillas in Africa and Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park is a key protected area in the landscape that harbors the recently reported population of 125,000 gorillas. The park is also home to some of the last populations of “naïve” chimpanzees which reside in the Goualouago Triangle and display a certain curiosity towards human observers encountering them for the first time.
     For the last 18 years the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Congolese Ministry of Forestry Economy (MEF) have forged a partnership through the Nouabalé-Ndoki Project and jointly manage the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park. The principle goal of the Nouabalé-Ndoki Project is to effectively protect the biodiversity of the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park through a site-based, landscape management approach, in collaboration with the buffer zones (PROGEPP) and contiguous protected areas in the region (Sangha River Trinational). Key site-based activities, in addition to law enforcement, include biological monitoring, research, training education and awareness raising, and eco-tourism development.  The program uses the ecological needs of and threats to a complementary suite of wide-ranging landscape species to efficiently target conservation efforts, and research and monitoring programs currently being conducted within the national park enable project management to evaluate the success of their conservation efforts in terms of meeting these needs and mitigating the threats.
     Capacity building is an important element of this effort, and WCS personnel within the project work closely with: a) staff from MFEE responsible for wildlife protection and Park management, b) local and regional stakeholders in the landscape, and c) Congolese graduates (as both research assistants and administrators) to develop national capacity for natural resource management.
     The Nouabalé-Ndoki Project also serves as a platform for protected area Policy development. Project staff worked closely with government, trinational and NGO partners to help develop the Sangha Trinational Trust Fund, which was launched in March 2007. This is the first such initiative in the region, and will provide stable, long-term funding for the management of the region’s protected areas. Nouabalé-Ndoki project staff have also worked to develop alternative funding strategies such as ecotourism, and steps are being taken in association with WCS’ Conservation Finance Program to develop private sector partnerships with tour operators that are willing to invest in tourism development at the site.
     WCS is also developing a wildlife-human health program including the construction and operation of a laboratory in Bomassa.  This program and laboratory involves multiple collaborations with analyses and research shared between CIRMF laboratory in Gabon, the Robert Koch Institute in Germany and other international and national institutions collaborating is the Great Ape Health monitoring efforts. A strong cooperation with the Government of Congo’s Ministry of Health is being developed regarding Ebola issues and WCS is working with international collaborators to develop a vaccine and strategy that will protect great apes in and around the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park. << Read less

Strengthen the management of the Noubale-Ndoki National Park ; Improve wildlife health monitoring and wildlife conservation planning in the region; contribute to research and biological monitoring.

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The Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park (NNNP; 4,200 km2) is located in the northern part of the Republic of Congo (RC). NNNP was created in 1993 in response to the critical biological significance and outstanding levels of biodiversity of the area,  including the endangered western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), chimpanzee (Pan troglodyates troglodytes), forest elephant (Loxodanta africana cyclotis), bongo (Tragelophus euryceros), buffalo (Syncerus caffer nanus), and leopard (Panthera pardus). Now considered as an area of exceptional regional and international importance, the NNNP, together with the Lobéké (Cameroon), and Dzanga-Ndoki National Parks (Central African Republic), forms part of the trans-boundary Sangha Tri-National complex (TNS), one of the most pristine blocks of protected tropical lowland forest in Central Africa (covering an area of over 25,000 km2). The TNS is not only one of the most important areas for biodiversity conservation, it also harbors one of the largest remaining populations of great apes in Africa. The fact that the TNS great ape exceptional priority area overlaps with a priority biodiversity landscape emphasizes the importance of apes as flagships for the forests they inhabit.
The TNS, representative of the Congo Basin eco-region, is recognized as a global priority landscape by the government of Congo, WCS, the CARPE Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP), the 2000 Libreville biodiversity vision workshop, and is among the seven exceptional priority areas in the regional action plan for the conservation of chimpanzees and gorillas in western equatorial Africa (Tutin et. al., 2005). The NNNP remains an intact forest ecosystem free of human disturbance or exploitation, with important populations of endangered great apes and other large mammals and more than 400 species of birds.
In December 2000, an official accord was signed by all the three countries, members’ states of TNS, solidifying the commitment to collaborate in the management of this area. In early 2010h the governments of Congo, CAR and Cameroun submitted the TNS, including NNNP to the UNESCO World Heritage Center to be listed as a World Heritage Site because of its unique and exceptional value. << Read less

The Congolese government and WCS have been improving the management of NNNP since its creation in 1993. Our commitments have strengthened a long-term program that focuses on developing sustainable approaches to management and conservation through research, capacity building, protection and monitoring programs. Sustainability will be ensured where possible by government and NGO commitment to employing only properly trained monitoring, health and protection staff.   WCS has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Congolese government to partner with them in national wildlife conservation in general and protected area management in particular. Although the level of governmental support is not ideal at this time, WCS itself has a long history of global conservation success, enabling it to seek funding support for protection activities from a wide range of sources.  Activities proposed in this program complement, and in many cases implicate, core WCS activities in the Park and its peripheral zone under CARPE Phase II funding and other WCS funds including two large private donations spread across three years that have recently been given to WCS to support anti-poaching and sustain this crucial activity. << Read less

Local communities are the primary natural resource exploiters and those with the greatest interest in sustainable management of forests. The demand people place on natural resources will vary in part depending on gender and ethnicity. To ensure that all sectors of communities are fully engaged in land use planning and natural resource management, they must all have direct input into these processes. The integration of communities into the land use planning process will entrench the understanding that these natural resources belong to them and thus encourage sustainable use.
In ROC, semi-nomadic people live mostly in the southern and western peripheral zones of the NNNP (the Kabo and Loundougo forestry concessions) where they engage in seasonal hunting and gathering of other NTFPs. Special exclusive access rights have been and will continue to be negotiated for BaKa and BaAka as well as other disadvantaged minority groups to exploit certain forest resources and/or areas. Central to the LUP is promoting integration of indigenous forest peoples and other minority groups in decision making processes and management institutions through the PIC (Prior Informed Consent) principle. WCS works with these communities, not only employing significant numbers of their members as trackers, porters and forest guides but also regularly consulting them during the development and modification of management plans. << Read less

Goal 1.1: To establish and strengthen national and regional systems of protected areas integrated into a global network as a contribution to globally agreed goals
Goal 1.2: To integrate protected areas into broader land- and seascapes and sectors so as to maintain ecological structure and function
Goal 1.3: To establish and strengthen regional networks, transboundary protected areas (TBPAs) and collaboration between neighbouring protected areas across national boundaries
Goal 1.4: To substantially improve site-based protected area planning and management
Goal 1.5: To prevent and mitigate the negative impacts of key threats to protected areas
Goal 2.2: To enhance and secure involvement of indigenous and local communities and relevant stakeholders
Goal 3.1: To provide an enabling policy, institutional and socio-economic environment for protected areas
Goal 3.2: To build capacity for the planning, establishment and management of protected areas
Goal 3.4: To ensure financial sustainability of protected areas and national and regional systems of protected areas
Goal 4.1 - To develop and adopt minimum standards and best practices for national and regional protected area systems
Goal 4.3: To assess and monitor protected area status and trends
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