Gabon

Gabon: Jewel of Equatorial Rainforests and Ancestral Traditions

Gabon is a Central African country with a coast on the Gulf of Guinea, bordered by Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon to the north and the Republic of Congo to the south and east. It is one of the most forested countries in the world, with roughly 80 percent of its territory covered by dense equatorial rainforest. The country has significant oil wealth, which has allowed it to maintain a relatively high standard of living compared to most of its neighbors and to invest substantially in conservation.

Gabon has 13 national parks covering about 11 percent of its territory, one of the highest percentages of protected land of any country in Africa. These parks protect extraordinary biodiversity including forest elephants, western lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, forest buffalo, and the surf-loving hippos of Loango National Park.

Lope National Park

Lope National Park in the center of the country is the most accessible wildlife area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It offers gorilla viewing, forest elephant encounters, and a landscape that transitions between ancient savanna pockets, created during previous ice ages, and the surrounding dense rainforest. This mosaic environment supports an unusually high concentration and diversity of wildlife.

The Lopé reserve is also an important archaeological site. Thousands of Neolithic and Iron Age carvings are found on rock outcrops throughout the park, and the site provides evidence of continuous human habitation over thousands of years in a landscape that appears completely wild today.

Staying at one of the lodges inside the park and taking guided walks through the transition zone between forest and savanna, watching forest elephants browse at the forest edge in the late afternoon, is one of the most rewarding wildlife experiences in Central Africa.

Loango National Park

Loango National Park on the coast is famous throughout Africa for its unusual combination of wildlife and ocean. This is the place where elephants walk on beaches, gorillas wander through coastal forest, and hippos surf in the Atlantic waves. Humpback whales pass offshore from July to September. Leatherback turtles nest on the beaches.

Loango is one of the most surreal and extraordinary wildlife settings in Africa. The combination of mega-fauna with a wild Atlantic coast is found almost nowhere else on earth. The national park has a small number of high-quality lodge options that cater to wildlife travelers and the experience of arriving by small plane and watching elephants on the beach from your lodge deck is genuinely unforgettable.

Ivindo National Park

Ivindo National Park in the northeast protects the Kongou Falls, one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Central Africa, and dense lowland rainforest of extraordinary biodiversity. The forest here has one of the highest densities of forest elephants and western lowland gorillas in Gabon.

The Langoue Bai, a large forest clearing where animals gather to drink mineral-rich water, offers wildlife viewing comparable to the famous bais of the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo.

The birdlife throughout Gabon’s national parks is exceptional. Over 700 bird species have been recorded in the country, including many species endemic to the Congo Basin and the Gulf of Guinea forests.

Libreville and the Coast

Libreville, the capital, is a modern, oil-wealthy city on the estuary of the Gabon River. The city has good hotels, restaurants serving French and West African food, and pleasant beaches at Cap Estérias north of the city. The Pongara National Park directly across the estuary from Libreville protects mangroves and beaches where leatherback turtles nest.

The coastal town of Port-Gentil, accessible by air or by boat up the Ogooue River delta, is Gabon’s second city and oil capital. The river delta around Port-Gentil has remarkable birdwatching and fishing, and the area around Fernan Vaz Lagoon has a population of western lowland gorillas accessible through a community-based conservation program.

Practical Travel Tips for Gabon

Most nationalities need a visa to enter Gabon, available through an e-visa system online before travel. The official language is French. The Central African CFA franc is the currency. Yellow fever vaccination is required for entry.

Malaria prevention is essential throughout the country. Libreville’s Leon M’ba International Airport has connections to Paris, Istanbul, Addis Ababa, and various West and Central African cities. The best time to visit for wildlife is June to September during the dry season.