Ogooué-Leketi National Park

Central Africa > Republic of the Congo > Ogooué-Leketi National Park

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Summary

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Leaflet

• Central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) & Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) are present in Ogooué-Leketi National Park.
• The population sizes are unknown.
• The population trends are unknown.
• The site has a total size of 3,500 km².
• Key threats to great apes are hunting and logging.
• Conservation activities are not documented.

Site characteristics

Ogooué-Leketi National Park is located in the Republic of Congo, bordering Batéké Plateau National Park in Gabon. Together, the two parks form a transboundary protected area that covers over 5,500 sq.km (Dasgupta 2018). Ogooué-Leketi is part of the Batéké Plateau landscape, which is formed by a unique patchwork of savannas on sandy hills, dense forest that includes some trees taller than 60 m, and flooded forests along rivers (BirdLife International 2021, Dasgupta 2018). In 2009, the IUCN identified the region where the site is found as a priority conservation area for the protection of the critically endangered western lowland gorilla and the endangered central chimpanzee (Dasgupta 2018). The site is home to several threatened species, some of which are endemic; for example, the park has at least six species of rare savanna plants that are specialists of the Kalahari Sands, which forms the Batéké Plateau (Dasgupta 2018). Other species occurring at the site include the African forest elephant, forest buffalo, red river hog, mandrills, bush duiker, side-striped jackal, and several bird species (Dasgupta 2018). Since 2007 the area has been of high importance for bird conservation (BirdLife International 2021).

Table 1. Basic site information for Ogooué-Leketi National Park

Species	Gorilla gorilla gorilla, Pan troglodytes troglodytes
Area	3,500 km²
Coordinates	Lat: -2.228976 S , Lon: 14.344131 E
Type of site	Protected area (National Park)
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest, Savanna, Subtropical/tropical swamp forest
Type of governance

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

Table 2. Ape population estimates reported for Ogooué-Leketi National Park

Species	Year	Abundance estimate (95% CI)	Density estimate [ind./ km²] (95% CI)	Encounter rate (nests/km)	Area	Method	Source	Comments	A.P.E.S. database ID
Gorilla gorilla gorilla						Unknown
Pan troglodytes troglodytes						Unknown

Threats

The site was designated as a National Park after three logging concessions that overlapped with the site were closed down. From 2013 to 2016 logging had expanded into the proposed park area. Logging companies are still active around the periphery of the park (Dasgupta 2018). The roads and bridges that the logging companies had built to access the site have facilitated commercial bushmeat hunting (Dasgupta 2018). Hunting is a major threat to the park's wildlife (Dasgupta 2018).

Table 3. Threats to apes reported for Ogooué-Leketi National Park

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Description	Year of threat
1 Residential & commercial development		Unknown
2 Agriculture & aquaculture		Unknown
3 Energy production & mining		Unknown
4 Transportation & service corridors	4.1 Roads & railroads	Present, but threat severity unknown	Roads and bridges built by logging companies in the past facilitate access to the forest for hunters (Dasgupta 2018).	Ongoing (2018)
5 Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	High	Commercial bushmeat hunting is a major threat (Dasgupta 2018).	Ongoing (2018)
5 Biological resource use	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	High	Three logging concessions that overlapped with the proposed park area stopped logging within the site in 2016; the logging companies are still active around the periphery of the park (Dasgupta 2018).	Ongoing (2018)
6 Human intrusions & disturbance		Unknown
7 Natural system modifications		Unknown
8 Invasive & other problematic species, genes & diseases		Unknown
9 Pollution		Unknown
10 Geological events		Absent
11 Climate change & severe weather		Unknown
12 Other threat		Absent

IUCN Threats list

Conservation activities

Since 2004, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Ministry of Forestry Economy have conducted biological and socio-economic surveys in the area to evaluate its conservation potential and define appropriate boundaries for what would become Ogooué-Leketi National Park (WCS 2018). The government of Congo and WCS-Congo worked with local communities in the process of establishing the park and creating a management plan for the park. There are five villages very close to the park boundary, whose residents have traditionally used the area for their needs, and continue to depend on the forest for their sustenance (Dasgupta 2018). The boundaries of Ogooué-Leketi were mapped to ensure the villages weren’t incorporated into the national park (Dasgupta 2018). The park includes eco-development zones, which are areas of cultural or natural resource use that are also high in ecological value (for example, bais, which are swampy forest clearings rich in minerals). In these eco-development zones, rights-holding communities are able to continue traditional and subsistence-based gathering, fishing or hunting (Dasgupta 2018).

Table 4. Conservation activities reported for Ogooué-Leketi National Park

Category	Specific activity	Description	Implementing organization(s)	Year of activity
5 Protection & restoration	5.2 Legally protect ape habitat	The national park was established in 2018.		Ongoing

Conservation activities list (Junker et al. 2017)

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Ogooué-Leketi National Park

Challenges	Specific challenges	Source	Year(s)
	Not reported

Enablers

Table 6. Enablers reported for Ogooué-Leketi National Park

Enablers	Specific enablers	Source	Year(s)
1 Site management
2 Resources and capacity
3 Engaged community
4 Institutional support
5 Ecological context
6 Safety and stability

Documented behaviours

Table 7. Behaviours documented for Ogooué-Leketi National Park

Behavior	Source
Not reported

References

BirdLife International (2021) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Ogooué Leketi National Park. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 28/10/2021.

Dasgupta, S. (2018). Republic of Congo names new national park, home to gorillas, elephants. Online: https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/republic-of-congo-names-new-national-park-home-to-gorillas-elephants/

WCS. (2018). Creation of Ogooue-Leketi National Park. Online: https://newsroom.wcs.org/News-Releases/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/11706/Creation-of-Ogooue-Leketi-National-Park.aspx

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