WWF in the Dzanga - Sangha Protected Area (DSPA)

Created in 1990, DSPA is in the far Southwestern region of CAR, at the northern edge of the Congo Basin forest. The area is well known for its impressive biodiversity and is the biggest intact forest block remaining in the country.


DSPA includes the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park and the Dzanga-Sangha Dense Forest Special Reserve. The Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, together with the neighbouring Lobeke and Nouabale-Ndoki national parks in Cameroon and Republic of Congo respectively, forms the core of the Sangha Tri-National (TNS) Protected Areas complex, designated a World Heritage Site in 2012. Together with its forested buffer zones, the TNS landscape consists of 25,000 km2 of tropical forest.


As a consequence of the region’s rich biodiversity, DSPA is a high priority for several WWF programmes, including the Green Heart of Africa Intiative and the African Great Apes and Elephant programmes.

WWF played a central role in the gazetting of the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park and Dzanga-Sangha Special Dense Forest Reserve in 1990. Ever since, we’ve worked alongside the CAR government to conserve this area, which is of exceptional regional and international importance. 

Today, the area remains a haven for wildlife, particularly forest elephants. As part of the TNS, it is considered an exceptional priority area for the conservation of chimpanzees and gorillas. 

On 1 July 2012, the TNS was the first three-country transboundary protected area inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is the culmination of over a decade of work by many dedicated people – including protected area managers, central governments in the three countries, conservation NGOs, researchers, community leaders, private sector and financial partners – to make the TNS a truly functional transboundary managed forest landscape. 

World Heritage Site status will introduce the TNS to the rest of the world. We hope it will lead to increased support for the continued protection of the area’s globally important biodiversity and for the people that depend on it.