UNESCO supports eco-tourism and income-generating activities in Lopé National Park

UNESCO and Gabon's National Parks Agency (ANPN) sign an agreement to support eco-tourism and income-generating activities in Lopé National Park.

The partnership concluded between UNESCO and the ANPN to the tune of 200,000 dollars for a period of 2 years will contribute to materializing a long-term vision to support the communities bordering the Lopé National Park in establishing a link between the eco -tourism and income-generating activities. This partnership will support in particular:

• The development of eco-tourism through the implementation of programs for the enhancement of cultural heritage and environmental education, including the enhancement of the eco-museum of the Lopé National Park;


• The development of income-generating activities for local communities through support for agricultural initiatives;


• The implementation of measures for the protection and monitoring of historic sites, including the carrying out of archaeological excavations on two major sites and the carrying out of surveys of rock engravings.

The activities planned in this partnership are part of the implementation of the recommendations of the World Heritage Committee for the improvement and enhancement of the management of the site. They will give continuity to the work initiated by UNESCO and the ANPN within the framework of  the Central African Forest World Heritage Initiative - CAWHFI project  (2016-2021), which rehabilitated the eco-museum of the National Park of Lopé in 2021 after more than ten years of closure and has carried out archaeological research that has dated cut stone tools revealing the oldest evidence of human presence in the Congo Basin , estimated to be at least 600,000 years old.

This partnership is possible thanks to the financial support of the Government of Norway, which supports UNESCO in the implementation of several programs intended to support the conservation of sites inscribed on the World Heritage List in Africa, including the "  Ecosystem and cultural relic of Lopé-Okanda  ”. This mixed site (nature/culture) was inscribed on the Heritage List in 2007 because of its remarkable forest-savannah landscapes illustrating the ecological and biological processes of adaptation of species and habitats to postglacial climate change, as well as for its many vestiges of past cultures.