Lopé National Park

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Ecosystem and Relict Cultural Landscape of Lopé-Okanda*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Type	Mixed
Criteria	iii, iv, ix, x
Reference	1147
Region†	Africa
Inscription history
Inscription	2007 (31st Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. † Region as classified by UNESCO.

Lopé National Park
IUCN Category II (National Park)
Location	Gabon
Area	4910 km²
Established	2002
Governing body	Gabon National Parks

Lopé National Park is a national park in central Gabon. Although the terrain is mostly rain forest, in the north the park contains the last remnants of grass savannas created in Central Africa during the last Ice Age, 15,000 years ago. It was the first protected area in Gabon when the Lopé-Okanda Wildlife Reserve was created in 1946. In 2007, the Lopé-Okanda landscape was added to the World Heritage List by UNESCO.

The park contains a small research station, named as Mikongo and run by the Zoological Society London, based in the village known as Mikongo, from which it gets its name. There exists infrastructure to cater for tourists at the base, including several chalets and a large open air dining room, from which the rainforest is a mere five meters away.^[1]