Gabon

Lopé-Okanda

WHS Score 1.95 Votes 3 Average 2.5

The Ecosystem and Relict Cultural Landscape of Lopé-Okanda are rich in plant life and have seen over 400.000 years of almost continuous human settlement.

The area is located where the tropical rainforest meets the savannah ecosystems. It holds a high plant diversity with over 1,550 species recorded. Its archaeological sites show evidence of ironworking and some 1,800 petroglyphs have been found. In the Neolithic and Iron Age, it seems to have been on a major migration route of people from West to Central and Southern Africa.

Community Perspective: “an expensive site to reach/visit and an uncomfortable one to travel in” - Solivagant visited in 2001 and tried to find a western gorilla which proved to be much more difficult than tracking its relatives in Rwanda and Uganda.

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Site Info

Official Information
Full Name
Ecosystem and Relict Cultural Landscape of Lopé-Okanda (ID: 1147)
Country
Gabon
Status
Inscribed 2007 Site history
History of Lopé-Okanda
WHS Type
Mixed
Criteria
  • iii
  • iv
  • ix
  • x
Links
UNESCO
whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
Related Resources
News Article
  • Feb. 17, 2021 whc.unesco.org — Ecomuseum of the Ecosystem and Relict Cultural Landscape of Lopé-Okanda reopens after 10 years
  • June 24, 2020 whc.unesco.org — The oldest evidence of human presence in the Congo Basin finally dated

Community Information

  • Community Category
  • Wildlife habitat: Fauna
  • Wildlife habitat: Flora
  • Cultural Landscape: Relict
Travel Information
No travel information
Recent Connections
View all (28) .
Connections of Lopé-Okanda
Trivia
History
  • Neolithic age
    "Criterion (iv): the collection of Neolithic and Iron Age sites together with the rock art remains appear to reflect a major migration route of Bantu and other peoples" (OUV)
  • Historical Food Remains
    Nuts and crops
Ecology
  • Savanna
    "due to the relatively dry conditions prevailing in the area where the nominated property is located, the rainforest could not re-colonize all the space occupied by savannah; thus resulting in an unusual interface between dense and well conserved tropical rainforest and relict savannah environments" (AB ev)
  • Rainforests
  • Critically endangered fauna species
    Western Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) - approx. 50,000 remaing, decreasing fast; And: Werneria iboundji, a species of toad endemic to Gabon

    See www.iucnredlist.org

  • Elephants
    African Elephant: "In 2006 there were some 5,500 forest elephants Loxodonta africana cyclotis (VU), the densest population in Africa" (UNEP)
  • Endemic Bird Species
    Cameroon and Gabon lowlands EBA, Lopé Faunal Reserve IBA: Grey-necked Picathartes (Picathartes oreas), Forest Swallow (Hirundo fuliginosa), Rachel's Malimbe (Malimbus racheliae), Dja River Warbler (Bradypterus grandis)

    See www.birdlife.org

  • Inselbergs
    inselberg forests (UNEP-WCMC)
  • Otters
    spotted-necked otter (UNEP-WCMC)
  • Bovines
    African forest buffalo (UNEP-WCMC)
  • Crocodiles
    African dwarf crocodile (UNEP-WCMC)
  • Strepsirrhini
    southern needle-clawed bushbaby, Gabon bushbaby, dwarf bushbaby, potto, golden angwantibo
  • High-Biodiversity Wilderness Area
    Congo Basin
  • Gorilla habitat
    Western lowland gorilla
Damaged
  • Poaching
    Control and regulation of commercial poaching is of priority, low threat, elephants for ivory, buffalo, duikers, bush pigs
World Heritage Process
Human Activity
WHS on Other Lists
  • Plant WHS not in a CPD
    "Over 1,550 plant species have been recorded, including 40 never recorded before in Gabon, and it is anticipated that once all the floristic surveys and research are completed the number of plant species could reach over 3,000." (OUV)
  • World Heritage Forest Programme
Timeline
Science and Technology
News
whc.unesco.org 02/17/2021
Ecomuseum of the Ecosystem and Rel…
whc.unesco.org 06/24/2020
The oldest evidence of human prese…
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Community Reviews

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First published: 01/05/05.

Solivagant

Lopé-Okanda

Lopé-Okanda (Inscribed)

Lopé-Okanda by Solivagant

So, after deferrals in the previous 2 years, Lope finally got inscribed in 2007! As we had visited in 2001 I wish I could help celebrate another addition to my “seen list” by supplying a photo of a Western (or “Lowland”) Gorilla taken in the park. But, despite 2 hard and very hot days of tracking, our efforts were rewarded only by the roar of a male just a few meters away from us in a forest which was so thick that we still couldn’t see him! My photos are only of a gorilla hand print in the forest mud and a skull on the veranda of the Mikondo research centre in the Park!

In Rwanda and Uganda, trips to see the gorillas are advertised as “Tracking” more as an insurance against the possibility of a failure to see rather than as a true description of the experience. We saw them quite easily in both countries. In Rwanda at least, everything is so well organised with trackers out overnight following each of the families that you would have to be very unlucky not to see the creatures and you do not really “track” them – just go to where the trackers have already made contact. Even in Uganda it is more a matter of following a group which is not trying to evade you from the previous night’s location. And, when you reach them, they are so used to their daily “tourist visit” that they continue their lives totally oblivious …

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