Lopé National Park

Lopé National Park
IUCN category II (national park)
Panorama of the northern savannah dominated part Lopé National Park, shortly after the annual grass burning
Location	Gabon
Coordinates
Area	4910 km²
Established	2002
Governing body	National Agency for National Parks
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	Ecosystem and Relict Cultural Landscape of Lopé-Okanda
Type	Mixed
Criteria	iii, iv, ix, x
Designated	2007 (31st session)
Reference no.	1147
State Party	Gabon
Region	Africa

View of Lopé and the Ogooué River.

A group of Forest elephants in the savannah of Lopé National Park.

Lopé National Park is a national park in central Gabon. Although the terrain is mostly rain forest, in the north the park contains the last remnants of grass savannas created in Central Africa during the last Ice Age, 15,000 years ago. It was the first protected area in Gabon when the Lopé-Okanda Wildlife Reserve was created in 1946. In 2007, the Lopé-Okanda landscape was added to the World Heritage List by UNESCO.

The park contains a small research station, named as Mikongo and run by the Zoological Society London, based in the village known as Mikongo, from which it gets its name. There exists infrastructure to cater for tourists at the base, including several chalets and a large open air dining room, from which the rainforest is a mere five meters away. The park also hosts CEDAMM Training Centre, a Wildlife Conservation Society-run international conservation education center.

External links

• Wildlife Conservation Society
• Virtual Tour of the National Parks