At the end of July 2017, I took a trip with friends from the Congo Conservation Company (CCC) to several protected areas in the Congo Basin, as part of an effort to develop a viable ecotourism circuit in the region. Congo and the neighbouring Central African Republic are home to an astonishing range of wildlife, much of it still very well protected by conservation groups, and therefore offer huge potential for the development of ecotourism.
The trip began in Odzala national park in northern Congo, which is situated in the north-central part of the Republic of Congo. The national park is Congo’s oldest, having been created in 1935, and now covers an impressive 13,600 km2. It is home to large populations of forest elephants and gorillas, and the main camp is regularly visited by hyenas. The national park is managed by African Parks Network, although tourism is managed separately by CCC through their very impressive ‘Odzala Discovery Camps’.
After Odzala the next stop was the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park (NNNP), and another chance to see the gorillas of Mondika. There are two groups in Mondika that have been habituated to the presence of humans, led by the silverbacks Kingo and Buka respectively. After the three-hour walk from the NNNP headquarters in Bomassa to the Mondika camp, including thirty minutes to cross the swamps of the Ndoki river, we were able to visit both Kingo and Buka during the stay. As well as visiting the gorillas, we spent a lot of time discussing plans to develop a high spec tourism lodge at the Mondika site, which would be able to provide much higher quality accommodation than that which is currently available at the site.
After Mondika, we crossed the border into the Central African Republic (CAR), and were welcomed by Rod and Tamar Cassidy to their Sangha Lodge in Bayanga. Rod and Tamar have spent almost a decade living and working in CAR to develop the lodge, despite the political upheaval in the country, and it will form an integral part of the tourism circuit that will link the two countries. Of course, the highlight of any trip to Bayanga is a visit to see the elephants at Dzanga Bai, and we spent half a day at the clearing to observe the elephants and other wildlife. The bai is a large natural forest clearing that about an hour’s drive from Bayanga, and is visited by hundreds of elephants every day, who come to feed and socialise in the clearing. During the three hours that we spent on the platform next to the clearing there were never less than 80 elephants in the bai, and we were also fortunate to see around 30 bongo antelope, and Dzanga bai is surely one of the wonders of the natural world.
Just a few days after our visit to the area, Congo hosted the country’s first ever national tourism forum in the capital city, Brazzaville. Tourism development faces many challenges in the country, but the forum is a very positive indication that the government is now prioritising the sector, and the ecotourism sector can play a key role in this development.
