Lobéké National Park

Central Africa > Cameroon > Lobéké National Park

Français | Português | Español | Bahasa Indonesia | Melayu

Summary

Loading map...

{"minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"mappingservice":"leaflet","width":"300px","height":"190px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"zoom":5,"defzoom":14,"layers":["OpenStreetMap","OpenTopoMap"],"image layers":[],"overlays":[],"resizable":false,"fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"cluster":false,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clustermaxradius":80,"clusterspiderfy":true,"geojson":"","clicktarget":"","imageLayers":[],"locations":[{"text":"\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"mw-parser-output\"\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca class=\"mw-selflink selflink\"\u003ELob\u00e9k\u00e9 National Park\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003C/div\u003E\u003C/b\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"mw-parser-output\"\u003E\u003Cp\u003E'Pan troglodytes troglodytes\u003Ci\u003E, \u003C/i\u003EGorilla gorilla gorilla\u003Ci\u003E\u003C/i\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003C/div\u003E","title":"Lob\u00e9k\u00e9 National Park\n","link":"","lat":2.298493000000000119342757898266427218914031982421875,"lon":15.689465999999999468172973138280212879180908203125,"icon":""}],"imageoverlays":null}

• Central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) & western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) are present in Lobéké National Park.
• It has been estimated that 2,658 gorillas and chimpanzees occur in the site.
• The great ape population trend is decreasing.
• The site has a total size of 2,153 km².
• Poaching is a key threat to chimpanzees and gorillas.
• The site forms part of the Sangha Trinational transboundary conservation landscape.

Gorillas in the Petite Savanne Bai, Lobeke © Dirck Byler

Site characteristics

Lobéké National Park is situated in the southeast corner of Cameroon. The park forms part of the Sangha Trinational (TNS) transboundary conservation landscape, which also includes Dzanga-Ndoki National Park in the Central African Republic, and Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo (N'Goran 2017; BirdLife International 2020). With at least 305 bird species recorded, Lobéké National Park is a designated Important Bird Area (BirdLife International 2020). The saline swamps found in Lobéké attract large numbers of elephants and bongos, and the park contains a significant proportion of untouched primary forest (BirdLife International 2020). The park has one of the highest concentrations of gorillas and elephants in the continent (Sangha Tri-national Trust fund).

Table 1. Basic site information for Lobéké National Park

Species	'Pan troglodytes troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla gorilla
Area	2,153 km²
Coordinates	Lat: 2.298493 , Lon: 15.689466
Type of site	Protected area (National Park)
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest, Subtropical/tropical swamp forest, Wetlands (lakes, rivers, streams, bogs, marshes)
Type of governance

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

Table 2. Ape population estimates reported for Lobéké National Park

Species	Year	Occurrence	Encounter or vistation rate (nests/km; ind/day)	Density estimate [ind./ km²] (95% CI)	Abundance estimate (95% CI)	Survey area	Sampling method	Analytical framework	Source	Comments	A.P.E.S. database ID
'Pan troglodytes troglodytes & Gorilla gorilla gorilla	2015				2,658	Lobéké National Park	Line transects		N'Goran 2017
'Pan troglodytes troglodytes & Gorilla gorilla gorilla	2009				2,685	Lobéké National Park	Unknown		N'Goran 2017
'Pan troglodytes troglodytes & Gorilla gorilla gorilla	2006				5,598	Lobéké National Park	Unknown		N'Goran 2017
'Pan troglodytes troglodytes & Gorilla gorilla gorilla	2002				6,360	Lobéké National Park	Unknown		N'Goran 2017

Threats

Table 3. Threats to apes reported for Lobéké National Park

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Description	Year of threat
10 Geological events		Absent
12 Other threat		Absent
5 Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	High (more than 70% of population affected)		Ongoing (2017)
1 Residential & commercial development		Unknown
2 Agriculture & aquaculture		Unknown
3 Energy production & mining		Unknown
4 Transportation & service corridors		Unknown
6 Human intrusions & disturbance		Unknown
7 Natural system modifications		Unknown
8 Invasive & other problematic species, genes & diseases		Unknown
9 Pollution		Unknown
11 Climate change & severe weather		Unknown

IUCN Threats list

Conservation activities

The Sangha Tri-National Trust Fund has contributed to the implementation of several conservation activities across the TNS; the WWF has helped develop and improve management plans for the area through their Jengi programme.

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Lobéké National Park

Challenges	Specific challenges	Source	Year(s)
	Not reported

Enablers

Table 6. Enablers reported for Lobéké 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

Research activities

Several studies have been conducted at Lobéké National Park. A recent study found that changes in land cover from 2001 to 2014 influenced great ape nest distribution (Yuh et al. 2019).

Documented behaviours

Table 7. Behaviours documented for Lobéké National Park

Behavior	Source
Not reported

External links

The Sangha Tri-National Trust Fund

References

N'Goran, K.P. (2017). Summary Report on WWF BIOMONITORING activities from 2014 to 2016 Status of Forest Elephant and Great Apes in Central Africa Priority Sites.

BirdLife International. (2020). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Lobéké National Park. Retrieved from http://www.birdlife.org on 23/11/2020.

Yuh, Y. G., Dongmo, Z. N., N’Goran, P. K., Ekodeck, H., Mengamenya, A., Kuehl, H., Sop, T., Tracz, W., Agunbiade, M., & Elvis, T. (2019). Effects of Land cover change on Great Apes distribution at the Lobéké National Park and its surrounding Forest Management Units, South-East Cameroon. A 13 year time series analysis. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36225-2

Page created by: A.P.E.S. Wiki Team Date: NA