The wildlife of the Central African Republic is in the vast natural habitat in the Central African Republic (CAR) located between the Congo Basin's rain forests and large savannas, where the human density was smaller than 0.5 per km2 prior to 1850. The forest area of 22.755 million, considered one of the richest storehouses of wildlife spread over national parks, hunting reserves and community hunting areas, experienced an alarming loss of wildlife because of greed for ivory and bushmeat exploitation by hunters – mostly Arab slavers from across the borders of the Central African Republic with Chad and Sudan. Realizing the serious threat to the wildlife, the colonists – French administration – in 1935 and later the government of the CAR, enacted laws and created national parks and preserves, which covered 16.6% of the country. The three most coveted national parks are the Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park with its reported "greatest concentrations of hippos in the world", the Bamingui-Bangoran National Park in the north; and the Dzanga-Sangha Reserve which covers rain forests. The Manovo-Gounda-Saint-Floris National Park, in particular was inscribed to the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites in 1988 in recognition of the diversity of life present within it in respect of its wealth of flora and fauna. In 2014, the Chinko Nature Reserve in eastern CAR was granted management through a public-private partnership with the Central African Republic Ministry of Wildlife, Water and Forestry and African Parks, a conservation NGO that takes on the direct, long-term management of national parks and protected areas in partnership with governments to save wildlife, restore landscapes and ensure sustainable livelihoods for local communities. African Parks has a mandate to manage this protected area, now referred to as the Chinko Project, for the next 50 years. However, the legal instruments were not effective in controlling poaching activities for profits, as institutional support for protected areas has all along been weak with hunters and loggers not letting go their activities even in national parks. Most of the timber extracted from the CAR is exported to Europe. Situated in the east of the CAR, Chinko is one of the region's only remaining strongholds for numerous species including the highly threatened Lord Derby eland, bongo and chimpanzees. This important ecosystem, however, is under tremendous pressure from militarized ivory poachers and intense levels of cattle grazing. The richness of the wildlife of the Central African Republic is reflected in its about 3,600 species of plants, 663 birds, 209 mammals (includes two endemic species and 11 threatened species), 187 reptiles and 29 amphibians.
Geography
The Central African Republic, a landlocked country in Africa, which was once a French colony under the name Ubangi-Shari, is a rich rainforest area of 22.755 million ha with tropical forest covering 35% of the area of the country. The rich forests of the Central African Republic vary and largely are delimited within the major tropical rain forests of Africa and the great open savannas that stretch across the continent, south of the Sahara. Depending on climatic conditions, it is distributed with thick forests in the south, woody savanna in the center and grasslands in the north. Wildlife in these forests reflect all the species identified in Africa; the most conspicuous species include elephants, chimpanzees, crocodiles, hippos and giraffes. The ecosystem in Central African Republic consists of the Western Congo Basin Forests, the Northeastern Congo Basin Forests and the Sudanian Savannas. The land use is categorized under the grass and shrub as 59%, under crops and settlements at 5% and major forests at 36% of the total land area of the country. Anthropological pressure is reported to be low in 46% area; medium in 44% and high in 10% of the land area. Apart from all the savanna species of wild animals, the unique species found here are forest gorillas. It had recorded the least percentage of forest loss, 1.9% from 1990 to 2005. Subsequently, logging roads were built not only to sustain subsistence agriculture but mostly for poaching for bush meat and ivory hunting, which has caused severe depletion of the abundant and diverse wildlife of CAR.
Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park is a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Central African Republic. It was added to the list of World Heritage Sites in 1988 and it covers 1.74 million ha under category (ix)(x), recognising the diversity of life present within it, and under IUCN Category II. It encompasses three zones, "the flood plain of the Bahr Aouk and Bahr Kameur rivers in the north, the Massif des Bongo in the south, and a gently undulating transitional plain between". The vegetation types that dominate the park within these three zones consists of Sudanese-Guinean woodland savannah that is further subdivided under five types namely, "the Terminalia laxiflora wooded savannah; the Isoberlinia doka and Monotes kerstingii woodland; the Pseudocedrela kotschyi and Terminalia macroptera woodland; the mixed lowland woodland or wooded savannah; and Anogeissus leio and Khaya senegalensis". However, due to poaching activity within the park and severe loss of wildlife, it was added to the List of World Heritage in Danger in 1997. Some 59 species have been recorded within the park.
Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve
Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve is a protected reserve of southwestern Central African Republic was established in 1990 and covers 6,865.54 km2 (2,650.80 sq mi). The forest special reserve was established in 1990 along with its neighbouring Dzanga Ndoki National Park. Until 1986, anybody was free to shoot game in the forest. The reserve is ecologically rich and contains a variety of megafauna such as western lowland gorillas, African forest elephants, bongo antelopes, African forest buffalos, In 1999, the forest special reserve was administered collaboratively by the Central African Ministry of Environment, Water, Forests, Hunting and Fishing, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
