W (Níger)

W National Park was established in 1954 in south-western Niger, around the double meander that the Niger river describes and that gives the whole its name, and protects some 10,000 km². UNESCO inscribed the Nigerien sector on the World Heritage List in 1996, and in 2017 the property was extended with the Benin and Burkina Faso sectors, becoming the W-Arly-Pendjari Complex.

The extended whole protects the largest continuous expanse of intact Sudano-Sahelian savannah ecosystems in West Africa, and is the last significant refuge of the region's megafauna: it holds the largest elephant population in West Africa, virtually all the lions left in the region, cheetahs and the last herds of buffalo and of large antelope.

The landscape combines wooded savannah, dry forest, gallery forest along the Niger, Mekrou and Tapoa rivers, and seasonal floodplains. The transition between savannah and Sahel shows itself in a very marked gradient from north to south. In recent years, insecurity linked to armed groups in the Liptako-Gourma region has severely affected management and has suspended tourism and much of the patrolling.