Central Africa: Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic

The primary reason for coming to the Republic of Congo (ROC) or the Central African Republic (CAR) is to visit their national parks, which, combined with neighboring Cameroon's protected forests, form a triangle of the world’s largest rainforests after those of the Amazon Basin - among the very last of their kind on the planet.

Delayed or cancelled flights and horrendous roads notwithstanding, this remote area is now accessible. And if location alone makes it a rare travel experience, by extension so must be the wildlife that is found there. The Central African Republic has some of the highest densities of forest elephants and western lowland gorillas in Africa. At Dzanga Bai in CAR's Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, it is not uncommon for 73 elephants to gather, a number which is a near daily occurrence. Large flocks of African Grey parrots also gather at this bai in the early morning and late afternoon, a moving sight when this parrot exists in the wild in only very small numbers. At Mbeli Bai in the ROC's Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, sixteen wild western lowland gorilla families along with ten solitary silverbacks, amounting to some 150 animals, are known to come to feed on its nutritional plants. Then there are Kingo and Makumba, the habituated gorilla patriarchs of ROC's Nouabale-Ndoki National Park and CAR's Dzanga-Ndoki National Park. To meet them and their families is to understand that you are now inextricably wrapped up in their fate. Tourists bring revenue to better the lives of local people, without whom conservation efforts would fail. It is easier to keep wildlife alive if men who hunted in the past for their livelihood earn a salary guiding visitors through the forest.

I am asked if these countries are safe to visit. I probably wouldn’t think so if I only paid attention to travel advisories or worried unduly about reports I read on the internet. This is not to say that there are no risks involved in travel to Congo or the Central African Republic, the latter of which ousted yet another head of state as recently as 2008. Instability has reigned in the CAR since its independence from France in the 60s. However, gorilla safari members enter the CAR at a river border a long distance from the capital city where the central government is located. The members of the conservation programs for the national park there describe long years of work in this isolated outpost which have outlasted the changes of governments. The Central African Republic may be one of the poorest countries of the world and among the poorest in Africa, but it has also been declared as one of the world’s leaders in sustainable development. From living in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, I can tell you that there are many signs of rapid development, all markers of stability for the country. Although the ROC did suffer a short civil war in the late 1990s, it is not to be confused with its neighbor and different country altogether, the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a protracted war has been waged in its east.