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A forest elephant and a calf walking across short green grass, with dark forest behind them.

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Gabon · western coast

Loango National Park

A coastal park in Gabon where forest elephants, buffalo and hippos walk out onto the beach.

Nature and wildlife

A forest elephant with her calf in Loango National Park. Photo: Kurt Dundy at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources beyond UNESCO and Wikipedia: 1 (1 press). Check each source's status in the list at the end of the card. It was published without a prior review by people from the place. If something is wrong or missing, tell the project.

This card keeps two kinds of knowledge apart: what the documented record says, and what the people who know the place say. Each is labelled, so a reader always knows which one they are reading.

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In the record

What it is

Loango National Park lies in western Gabon, between the Nkomi and Ndogo lagoons, and covers 1,550 square kilometres. It was established in 2002.[1] It protects savanna, beach, forest and mangrove, including part of the 220 km² Iguéla Lagoon, and more than 100 kilometres of uninhabited coastline.[1]

Kind
National park[1]
Area
1,550 km²[1]
Established
2002[1]
Coast
over 100 km of uninhabited coastline[1]
Managed by
National Agency for National Parks[1]

Conservation reporters call it a pristine forest-savanna mosaic.[2]

Wildlife

Elephants, buffalo, hippopotamuses, gorillas and leopards live on land, and humpback and killer whales in the sea. The park is known for elephants, buffalo, hippos, gorillas and leopards going out onto the beaches.[1]

One of thirteen parks

Gabon set aside 13 national parks, more than 10,000 square miles and about 10% of the country. The Wildlife Conservation Society had done field research in Gabon since 1985 and helped plan the parks through surveys of remote areas.[2]

The Mongabay report is dated September 2005 and speaks of the parks as announced then; Wikipedia gives 2002 for Loango's establishment. The sources do not agree on the timeline.[2][1]

Conservationists in the report describe resolving conflicts between loggers and preservationists, with the scientist Lee White steering logging away from the most sensitive areas.[2]

Not yet sourced
  • When the parks were created. The two sources read give 2002 (for Loango) and September 2005 (for the announcement of the 13 parks); neither is an official Gabonese document.
  • The state of the park and its animals today. No count of elephants or other wildlife was read, and the sources are a 2005 news report and Wikipedia.
  • Who lives around the park and how it affects them. The sources read are written from the conservation side.
  • Whether and how it can be visited, which lodges operate there and what they cost. Nothing about access was read.
  • The coordinates are Wikipedia's for the park as a whole, not an entrance.

Sources

  1. Encyclopedia · to verify[1] Loango National Park. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org retrieved 8 Oct 2026
    Used for coordinates, area, founding year, habitats and wildlife. Check against Gabon's National Agency for National Parks, whose site was not read.
  2. Press[2] Gabon sets aside 10 percent of country as protected parks. Mongabay, 1 Sep 2005. news.mongabay.com retrieved 8 Oct 2026
    Conservation news report dated September 2005. It speaks of the 13 parks as announced then, while other sources date the decision to 2002; the card gives both.