Mapping & Monitoring
Monitoring Land Cover and Land Use in Central Africa
Lopé National Park, Gabon
Situated in the center of Gabon, the 4,910 square kilometer Lopé National Park is an enclave of forest-savanna in the midst of the Congo Basin’s tropical rain forest. Lopé’s savannas are the combined result of the global climate during the last glaciation, present-day geology and microclimate, and human-induced fire. Evidence of human habitation dating back almost 400,000 years is the oldest sign uncovered in the forests of Central Africa.
In the latter half of the twentieth century, portions of Lopé were designated as timber concessions, and selective logging occurred within the park boundaries until the 1980s. Today, Lopé’s designation as a national park precludes logging; instead, scientific research and ecotourism dominate current land use, providing jobs and revenue to the sparsely populated region of central Gabon. A national research center for primatology, Le Centre d-Etudes des Gorilles et Chimpanzes, was established in the northeastern part of the park in 1983. Archeological research is also being conducted in the region. Elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, mandrills, black colobus monkeys, and a wide variety of birds (about 400 species) are the spotlights of ecotourism.
Threats to Conservation
Approximately 45% of Gabon is currently under timber concession, making Lopé National Park an important site for wildlife conservation, ecological research, and ecotourism. Although the ecological integrity of Lopé is well protected within the park, it is surrounded by timber concessions and is thus in danger of becoming an isolated habitat island. Fortunately, steps are being taken by the Congo Basin Forest Partnership to manage the forests of the Lopé-Chaillu-Louesse Landscape as a whole, creating buffer zones around the park and linking key habitats with biological corridors.
Participants at the 2000 CARPE-GOFC Remote Sensing & GIS Workshop
Project Objectives
- Provide remote sensing and GIS products and support for wildlife conservation and forest management
- Evaluate the utility of multi-sensor data fusion on vegetation mapping
Project Activities
- Conducting regional remote sensing & GIS training workshops on forest monitoring for foresters and conservation practitioners
- Mapping vegetation types using wavelet-based fusion of radar and optical satellite data
Products & Applications
Below are vegetation maps produced using Landsat imagery and fusion of Landsat and "Mission Aéroportée Radar SAR" data for the forest-savanna interface in the northern part of the Lopé National Park.
To obtain the full-resolution products and their metadata files, please contact .
Vegetation Maps of the Forest-Savanna Interface
Derived from Landsat data (Bands 3, 4, 5)
Derived from the fusion of Landsat & SAR data
Future Outlook
The WHRC encourages interested partners to propose future collaborative efforts.
