In the 1980s, WCS-backed scientists set out to study a little-known forest in northern Congo. They explored fascinating high-integrity ecosystems, met «naïve» chimpanzees and set up a small camp in what would become, thanks to their studies, the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in 1993.

The collaboration between the WCS and the government of Congo that led to the creation of the Park laid the foundations for a fruitful long-term relationship that allowed the WCS to become a major actor of conservation in the Republic of Congo.

In 1999, the WCS spearheaded an innovative tripartite agreement between the government, the WCS, and a forestry company, the Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB), to extend conservation efforts beyond the Park’s borders, into the concessions where CIB operates.

This tripartite agreement improves the fight against poaching in a buffer zone around the Park, and better engages the Park’s neighboring communities into sustainable economic activities. In 2004, CIB confirmed this commitment by obtaining FSC certification.

In 1999, the Republic of Congo also created its first coastal National Park, Conkouati-Douli, co-managed with WCS for its first 20 years. This involvement in the Gulf of Guinea landscape has enabled WCS to develop expertise in marine issues, and to participate actively in the process launched in 2017 that has led to the creation, in 2023, of Congo’s first Marine Protected Areas.

In 2001, WCS went to co-manage the country’s first Community Reserve, created around Lac Télé, in the heart of the Congo cuvette, a carbon sink crucial to mitigating the climate crisis. WCS is still involved in the community management of this unique reserve, where researchers have recorded the highest gorilla density in the world.

In a third Congo landscape, that of the Batéké Plateau savannahs, WCS also became involved in 2004 through biomonitoring studies and a process of free, informed and prior consent, to contribute to the creation, in 2019, of the Republic of Congo’s fifth national park, named Ogoué-Leketi.