Obô de São Tomé

Obô de São Tomé Natural Park was established in 2006 on the island of São Tomé, in the Gulf of Guinea, and protects some 235 km², around 30 % of the island's surface. Obô is the local name for the upland rainforest.

São Tomé and Príncipe are oceanic volcanic islands that have never been joined to the mainland, and that condition has produced an extraordinary evolutionary radiation. With a minimal surface area, the archipelago has one of the highest densities of endemic species in the world: around thirty birds found nowhere else have been described there, as well as reptiles, amphibians, bats and a flora with hundreds of endemics, including tree begonias more than three metres tall.

Among its birds are the dwarf olive ibis, the smallest ibis in the world, the bird known in Spanish as the mosquitero gigante, which despite its name belongs to a group of tiny birds, and the São Tomé scops owl. Several of those species are critically endangered and are concentrated in the south of the island, the least accessible area. The main threats are agricultural expansion, in particular oil palm plantations, hunting and the building of hydroelectric infrastructure on the park's rivers.