Trinational sanctuary on the Sangha River

Sangha Trinational
UNESCO world heritage
Buffalo in the Lobéké National Park
National territory:	Cameroon Republic of the Congo Central African Republic
Type:	nature
Criteria :	ix, x
Surface:	746,309 ha
Buffer zone:	1,787,950 ha
Reference No .:	1380rev
UNESCO region :	Africa
History of enrollment
Enrollment:	2012  (session 36)

The national parks in the protected area

The Tri-National Conservation Area on the Sangha River (TNS) is a cross-border rainforest reserve in Cameroon , the Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic . In 2012, a large part of the protected area was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List as a World Heritage Site under the name Sangha Trinational .

description

The reserve is located in the northwestern Congo Basin , where the three countries border each other. It was founded by the three countries on an initiative of the Commission des Forêts d'Afrique Centrale (COMIFAC) in order to strengthen cooperation for the conservation of the rainforest area, which is one of the largest contiguous areas on earth. The sanctuary takes its name from the Sangha River , a right tributary of the Congo , which flows through this forest area. It comprises the Dzanga Sangha Conservation Area with the two separate areas of the Dzanga Ndoki National Park in the Central African Republic, the Lobéké National Park in Cameroon and the Nouabalé Ndoki National Park in the Republic of the Congo as well as other forest areas surrounding these national parks. Overall, the protected area has an area of ​​around 2.8 million hectares .

Since the areas are located away from larger towns and traffic routes, they have not been affected by intensive economic use for a long time. As a result, a natural habitat with high biodiversity and a high density of large mammals has been preserved. The area contains numerous different habitats such as tropical forests made up of deciduous and evergreen species, a wide variety of wetland species including swamp and periodically flooded forests, and various types of forest clearings. Many endangered animal species occur here. Due to the size of the trinational protected area, species that are dependent on a large habitat also find good living conditions here, including forest elephants , western lowland gorillas , forest buffalo and bongo antelopes .

The cooperation between the three countries includes a. Regular meetings of the three park administrations, sometimes also with the respective politicians, joint patrols to protect against poachers and smugglers of ivory and weapons, and joint projects for research and tourism promotion. The protected areas are financially and personally supported by the German Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

World natural heritage

Sangha Trinational was already on the agenda of the 35th session of the World Heritage Committee in 2011 , but was referred back to the states for improvements. In 2012, the site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list based on a decision of the 36th session of the World Heritage Committee. The entry was made on the basis of criteria (ix) and (x).

(ix): The site is characterized by its large size, further supported by the very large buffer zone, minimal disturbance over long periods of time and integrity, which enables the continuation of ecological and evolutionary processes on a large scale. These include the continued presence of viable populations of wildlife in natural densities, including predators and large mammals, which elsewhere are often compromised by hunting and poaching. There is a fully interconnected mosaic of very diverse habitats including numerous types of ecologically remarkable forest clearings that attract large groups of wildlife and myriad plant species that are otherwise not found in the forest landscape. In contrast to many other forest protection areas, the site is not a remaining fragment, but rather part of a much larger intact landscape with good prospects for conservation. This is increasingly rare and significant worldwide.

(x): The site represents a broad spectrum of the biodiverse humid tropical forests in the Congo Basin of Central Africa and provides protection for a number of endangered species. The flora is enriched by species that occur exclusively in the various types of forest clearings. TNS protects a large number of tree species that are heavily exploited commercially elsewhere, such as the critically endangered Mukulungu. In addition to viable populations of forest elephants, significant populations of the critically endangered western lowland gorilla and endangered chimpanzee are also found in and around the site, along with some endangered antelope species such as the sitatunga and the emblematic bongo.

The core area of ​​the World Heritage site comprises the three national parks. It has an area of ​​746,309 hectares and is surrounded by a 1,787,950 hectare buffer zone which a. includes the rest of the Dzanga Sangha Conservation Area ( Lage ) and other forest areas surrounding the national parks. With a total area of ​​2,534,259 hectares, the Sangha Trinational World Heritage Site thus comprises a large part of the trinational protected area.

Ref.No.	designation	location	Protection area	image
1380rev-001	Nouabalé Ndoki National Park	Republic of the Congo ( geographic coordinates )	406,455 ha	more pictures
1380rev-002	Lobéké National Park	Cameroon ( geographic coordinates )	217,854 ha	more pictures
1380rev-003	Dzanga Ndoki National Park	Central African Republic ( geographic coordinates Dzanga ) ( geographic coordinates Ndoki )	122,000 ha	more pictures

Web links

Commons : Trinational de la Sangha  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• The Tri-National Conservation Area on the Sangha River (TNS) on the Dzanga Sangha Conservation Area website
• Sangha Trinational on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
• World Database on Protected Areas - Sangha Trinational (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Sangha Trinational. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed June 9, 2017 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} The Tri-National Conservation Area on the Sangha River (TNS). In: www.dzanga-sangha.org. Retrieved June 10, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Decision: 35 COM 8B.4. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed June 10, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Decision: 36 COM 8B.8. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed June 10, 2017 . 
5. ↑ Sangha Trinational. Maps. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed June 10, 2017 . 

 Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap