Zakouma National Park is a
national park, located between
Sarh
and Am
Timan, in the south of
Chad.
Created in 1963, it was Chad's first national park, and has an area of
almost 3,000 square kilometres (1,200 sq mi). It is entirely surrounded by
the
Bahr Salamat Faunal Reserve.
Zakouma was neglected during the period of civil conflict, but a restoration
programme, supported by the
European Union, began in 1989 and is continuing in 2006. The area
in and near the Park has seen significant reduction in certain wildlife
species in recent decades. For example, elephant herds were substantial in
number as recently as 1970 with an estimated population of 300,000; however,
by 2007 the number had dwindled to about 10,000. The African elephant
nominally has governmental protection, but the implementation practices of
the government (backed with certain
EU help) has proven insufficient to stop the poaching[1].
In 2006, Conservationist J. Michael Fay and National Geographic photographer
Michael Nichols traveled to Zakouma National Park to document the danger
poachers create for the world's largest remaining concentration of
elephants. Their trip resulted in
Ivory Wars, Last Stand in Zakouma.
New tourist accommodation was opened in the Park, at Tinga, in 2003. The
fauna
of the Park includes 44 species of large
mammals,
and many species of
birds. In 2005, a study estimated the
lion
population of the Park to be about 120 while the number of elephants inside
the park was counted at 3,885.[2]
Zakouma National Park has been nominated
[3] by the Chadian Government to become a
UNESCO
World Heritage Site.
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