Cross River

Cross River National Park was established in 1991 in the state of the same name, in south-eastern Nigeria and next to the Cameroonian border, and protects some 4,000 km² divided into two sectors, Oban and Okwangwo.

It preserves the largest area of tropical rainforest left in Nigeria and forms part of the Guinean forests of West Africa biodiversity hotspot. It adjoins Korup National Park in Cameroon, and together they protect a block of forest considered one of the oldest in Africa, which is thought to have acted as a forest refuge during the climatic oscillations of the Pleistocene; this explains its extraordinary level of endemism.

Its most emblematic species is the Cross River gorilla, the most threatened gorilla subspecies in the world, of which some three hundred individuals remain in highly fragmented populations between Nigeria and Cameroon, with the Okwangwo sector as one of its last strongholds. The park is also home to the drill, a primate with a very restricted range, as well as chimpanzee, forest elephant and an extremely high botanical diversity. Logging, hunting for bushmeat and the expansion of plantations are its main threats.