Gabon - Batéké Plateaux National Park

The Batéké Plateaux National Park is located in the Haut - Ogooué Province, on the Congo - Gabon border. This site became a National Park in 2002 (by the decision of the Head of State to make Gabon's forests protection areas of flora and fauna). It covers an area of ​​204,854 ha, or 2050 km2, and is located in the extreme south - east of Gabon. Previously a reserve and sanctuary for the orphaned gorillas and the last duikers of Grimm, this site was erected in national park by decree n ° 604 / PR / MEFEPEPN of August 30, 2002. The vegetation is a mosaic of grassy and shrubby savannahs interspersed with humid gallery forests of various species. The climate is equatorial transition, hot and humid, with an average temperature of about 23 - 24 °. Batéké Plateaux National Park is a series of plateaus and rolling hills incised by valleys and intermittent streams whose altitudes range from 350 m to 930 m. Upstream, there are canyons from which many rivers leave. The occurrence of waters in the different natural habitats significantly favors the biodiversity of species and ecosystems existing in the Batéké Plateau National Park. Mainly inhabited today by a homogeneous Téké population, the Batéké Plateau region merges with that of the Teke Kingdom reported by European explorers as early as the 15th century. From this date, it is noted a strong metallurgical activity that dates back over two thousand years and lasted until the early twentieth century (Gilles Sautter and Ian Vansina). However, Haut-Ogooué did not have any centralized power despite the importance of iron and steel (Dupré and Pinçon, 1997) and the cultural mixing that is observed among the Téké of the R .D.Congo and the Republic of Congo