Odzala National Park
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How it came to be
The Forest Massif of Odzala-Kokoua is a protected area of rainforest and savanna in the north-west of the Republic of the Congo. Its core, Odzala-Kokoua National Park, was first protected in 1935 and is one of the oldest national parks in Africa. It became a biosphere reserve in 1977 and was formally designated by decree of President Denis Sassou Nguesso in 2001.
It lies where the Lower Guinean and Congolian forests meet, and shows forest reclaiming savanna. More than 130 marshy clearings are kept open by wildlife, and counts have recorded 6,246 forest elephants, 11,481 gorillas and 2,240 chimpanzees. Between 2002 and 2005 Ebola outbreaks killed 70 to 95 percent of the park's gorillas.
Conservation was limited during the civil war of 1997 to 1999. Since 2010 the non-profit African Parks has managed the park under a 25-year agreement with the government, and it was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2023. Baka people had accused its rangers of beatings, torture and rape; in May 2025, after an independent investigation it had commissioned, African Parks acknowledged that human rights abuses had occurred in the park, without saying what they were.
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