Conservation | WCS Congo Blog

Nestor Massembo, 20 years after the Megatransect

Posted on December 23, 2020

Twenty years ago, the legendary expedition across Central Africa known as the “Megatransect” was coming to an end. This large-scale study of the Congo Basin’s forest brought unprecedented international attention to this biodiverse and endangered ecosystem. Among those who took part in this unique adventure, Nestor Massembo, a Ba’Aka tracker, has since then dedicated his life to wildlife conservation. ...

Lessons learnt from the seizure of 30 Congolese dwarf crocodiles

Posted on December 4, 2020

by Clément Kolopp

In late October 2020, 30 Congolese dwarf crocodiles were released into their natural habitat, after having been seized from poachers. This incident highlighted the peculiar trafficking of a poorly known and vulnerable species that is endemic to the Congo Basin....

Notes from the Field: Floods in Congo’s Peat Forests

Posted on June 24, 2020

by Flore Monteau

From the air, the forest in Northern Congo looks like a vast, green carpet, broken only by tree falls and glimpses of streams. At this time of year, if you were to plunge beneath the canopy, you'd be faced with a bizarre mirror-world, with still black water reflecting the forest above and below. In the Congo's north-eastern forests, rains fall onto deep layers of peat,...

Largest study ever in Western Equatorial Africa shows gorillas in deep trouble

Posted on September 24, 2019

by Flore Monteau

In 2018, scientists from ten different organizations assembled the largest survey dataset ever on western lowland gorillas and central chimpanzees. We collated the information on great apes nests from 59 sites in five countries surveyed over 11 years between 2003 and 2013. The study indicated that although there were more gorillas than previously published, they were in deep trouble- declining by a shocking 2.7% every year....

Scientific research, an essential tool for the conservation of forest elephants

Posted on August 12, 2019

by Flore Monteau

For more than 25 years, scientists have been monitoring, studying and observing Mbeli bai’s wildlife in the Nouabalé-Ndoki national park. The Mbeli study is named after the bai , or clearing, where the research is conducted. Forest elephants, a still little known and often overlooked sub-species, are frequently observed in this unique landscape. The Mbeli study has contributed essential knowledge to the development of improved...

Donatien, the Indigenous person who wants to become a research assistant

Posted on August 9, 2019

by Zanne Labuschagne

Donatien Mengonga, Bayaka indigenous tracker, has a dream: to become a research assistant at the Mondika site in the northern Republic of Congo. WCS's scientific skills development programme has enabled him to resume his studies....

Nouabale-Ndoki National Park celebrates 25th Anniversary

Posted on July 17, 2019

by Zanne Labuschagne

BRAZZAVILLE, REPUBLIC OF CONGO (June 18th, 2019) – Her Excellency Rosalie Matondo, the Republic of Congo’s Minister of Forestry Economy, the U.S. Ambassador, Todd Haskell, and the Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS’s) Africa program, Tim Tear celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park – a stunning protected area, and World Heritage Site, that spans 1,621 square miles (4,200 square kilometers) of...

Congo’s fifth national park: Ogooue-Leketi

Posted on November 9, 2018

by Zanne Labuschagne

On the 9th of November 2018 Her Excellency Rosalie Matondo, the Republic of Congo’s Minister of Forestry Economy; the US Ambassador, Todd Haskell; Paul Sabatine, Mission Director to USAID/DRC; the Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Congo program; and local authorities gathered in Sibiti in the Lekoumou Department to create, by official decree, Congo’s fifth national park - the Ogooué-Leketi National Park. ...

World Ranger Day 2018

Posted on July 31, 2018

by Zanne Labuschagne

Each morning at dawn the whistle blasts out through the fog, initiating a flurry of activity as the Ndoki rangers emerge from their tents and start their warm-up laps of the training camp. The forest towers above them, the training facility and its inhabitants dwarfed by the expansive Nouabale-Ndoki National Park. These brave men and women are the Park’s on-the-ground defence against a wave of...

Kabo airstrip back in action

Posted on July 12, 2018

by Zanne Labuschagne

The Nouabale-Ndoki National Park is a unique place – not a single road enters into the Park, and the tract of forest within its boundaries is some of the most intact in the Congo Basin. Despite good roads in the Park periphery, surveying remote zones of the Park, and moving between the Park’s two headquarters – one in the north-eastern periphery and the other on...

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