Odzala National Park

Odzala National Park is a national park in the Cuvette-Ouest Region of Republic of the Congo. Founded in 1935, the park now covers 13,600 km2. It is known as "one of the most important strongholds for forest elephant and western gorilla conservation remaining in Central Africa".

Here is information dating mostly from 1996: The whole area is within the catchment area of the Mambili River, which drains the area towards the south. The region is very varied, due to the juxtaposition of several habitat types: savanna, forest and rivers. The site is astride the savanna-forest boundary of North-Central Congo, allowing for a high biodiversity of flora and fauna, with species from forest, savanna and riverine forest. The area is densely forested in the northwest; towards the south and east the forest becomes more open with an understorey of Marantaceae carpeting the ground. In the south of the region an extensive forest-savanna mosaic is found, including gallery forests and dry and swamp savanna.