Northern Congo & the Sangha Tri-National Park

Introduction | Environment | Land Use & Conservation Threats | Project Activities & Products

Land Use

As in most of the Central African forests, humans have inhabited the region of Northern Congo and the Sangha Tri-National Park for thousands of years. Bases on rare archeological findings, some even speculated the occupation of a large human population and extensive agricultural activities in parts of the forest. Traditionally, land use in the region consisted of subsistence activities, including hunting-gathering, shifting cultivation, fishing, and trapping. During the colonial period, exploitative activities such as slave trading, rubber tapping, ivory hunting, diamond mining, and logging became prevalent. However, since the Sangha River region is among the last colonized regions of Africa, the scale and the locations of these exploitations were limited. Today, land use in Northern Congo and the Sangha Tri-National Park region is dominated by wildlife conservation and large-scale industrial logging.

Land use in the Sangha Tri-National Park & Northern Congo

As a result of international conservation efforts, a complex of trans-boundary protected areas were established in the early 1990s, including the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park & Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve in the Central African Republic (1990), the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo (1993), and Lake Lobeké National Park in Cameroon (2001). In 2003, the Tri-National Park and its buffer zones were designated by the Congo Basin Forest Partnership as one of the 11 landscapes of conservation priority in Central Africa.

Although parts of the Tri-National Park complex have already been logged, the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park remains pristine and is only accessibly by foot. However, with the exception of its western border, the park is now surrounded by active timber concessions. Currently, there are over 70,000 km² of timber concessions in the northern part of Congo (about 27,000 mi², slightly larger than the size of Ireland), making industrial logging the most important land use in the region. The majorities of these concessions are “primary” forest—without any road access and have never been logged before—and have only been allocated since the 1990s. All of the concessions are run by foreign timber companies, often subsidiaries of large international corporations that also operate in other neighboring countries in Central Africa.

Threats to Conservation

Pokola: town, airstrip & sawmill (from left to right)	Construction of logging road

Large-scale industrial logging in Northern Congo first began in 1960, in the present day Kabo & Pokola concessions. However, the rate of timber extraction has only begun to accelerate since the 1990s. Although the nature of timber harvest in the region is selective (high-grading vs. complete forest clearing), its negative impacts are still alarming.

The most direct effect is the depletion of the commercial timber and the removal of aboveground biomass. Roughly 20 tree species are being logged on a regular base, and the harvesting intensity is on average one tree per hectare. However, over 85% of the timbers harvested belong to the genus of Entandrophragma (African mahogany), and over 70% are of one species, E. cylindricum (“sapelli” or “sapele”). Although Entandrophragma is one of the more common genus in the forest of Northern Congo, the future of these species is bleak if the current harvesting trend continues without adequate forest management. Moreover, the long-term effects on forest composition and structure could lead to further impoverishment of valuable timbers and the devaluation of the forest. This could in term increase logging intensity and forest degradation, as we have witnessed in other parts of the world.

Elephant poaching: eco-guards holding a confiscated ivory

A hunter on his way to sell bush meat in a nearby town

A worker drinking from the "water vine" (Cissus spp.)

Extraction of tree bark from Drypetes spp. for medicinal use

The indirect effects of the industrialization of logging can be potentially more devastating. Employment opportunities with logging companies attract migrant workers to the region from across Central Africa, and, as the population grows, pressure on the environment also grows. More forests are being cleared for agriculture around settlements; more forest animals are being hunted and more fish in the rivers caught to provide an increasing demand for dietary protein. The construction of logging roads, consequently the increase of human access into the previously remote forest, also exacerbates the situation. The most threatening activities are the poaching of protected species (i.e. for ivory) and the commercial hunting of bush meat (for export to major population centers in Central Africa). Others include the increased extraction of non-timber plant products. Although some of these activities are part of the traditional land use, the pressure on the forest has been amplified by both the increase in human population and the increase in the presence of people in the forest. Without proper management, the sustainability of these non-timber forest products could be in jeopardy.

Mining in the Central African Republic	Bush meat displayed in Bayanga, C.A.R.

Another threat to the forest and its wildlife is diamond-mining. A problem in the northern portion of the Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve, this is an illegal activity in the protected area. It destroys forest habitats and produces indirect environmental impacts similar to those described above.

©Woods Hole Research Center, 2007