Today, we are heading into Niokolo Koba National Park. The park is the largest in all of West Africa, an impressive testimony to the conservationists who advocated for land protection during the early decades of Senegal’s independence. They turned what used to be a French hunting reserve into 900,000 hectares of protected forests, grasslands, rivers, waterholes, and iconic African habitats. Despite the needs for jobs and the discovery of gold in the region, the park has remained more or less intact.

Still, the history of this place is a complicated one. Kecouta’s village, where we’ve been for the past two days, used to be located in an ideal section of forest deep in the park. His ancestors thrived there, benefiting from fertile soil, plentiful water, and easy access to forage from the wilderness. But the people who imagined the park becoming a tourist hub didn’t think the visiting animal enthusiasts would want to see people in the midst of the wilderness so Kecouta and his family and their neighbors were forcibly removed. All that’s left of their once perfect home is a few structures and abandoned wells. Although Kecouta’s village is a welcoming and beautiful place, it is located on land that is as hard as cement, where the passing traffic poses a daily threat to children and animals, and where water and good farmland are more than 10 kilometers away. The cost of conservation is very real here.

So, our plan is to explore, to observe, and to imagine points of conflict in action. How might we, as tourists ourselves who would love to see some wildlife, be contributing to human injustice? Should the desire of foreigners to see lions, hippos, and other wild creatures be valued enough to move people out of their ancestral homes? This is a local question but also one that has been asked around the world. The answer is worth considering.

We will not have internet access while we are in the park but please expect more from us tomorrow when we leave the wilderness.

Here are some facts about the park:

1. Niokolo Koba National Park
   1. West Africa’s largest national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to eighty mammal species (elephants, lions, chimpanzees, buffalo, hippopotamus, leopards, and wild dogs, to name a few), sixty species of fish, thirty-­‐eight species of amphibian, over three hundred types of birds (BlackCrowned Crane, Ground Hornbill, etc.). According to some sources, the lions in Niokolo Koba are the largest in all of Africa.
   2. The park itself is nearly one million hectares (just about 2,471,050 acres) and the Gambia River runs right through it.
   3. Historically, poaching has been an issue in Niokolo Koba; the Senegalese government is working at the national and local levels to combat this issue.  The designation of the park as a World Heritage Site has added funds and designated significance to fuel difficult conservation initiatives.
      1. Panthera, an international NGO, is now at the forefront of conservation efforts in Niokolo Koba.  They have introduced drones, game cameras, and tracking devices to support the protection of lions, leopards, and wild dogs in particular.  These three species are critically endangered in West Africa, with populations of some below 50 and Niokolo Koba as perhaps the last refuge.
   4. It was originally created as a hunting reserve in 1926, but was converted to a forest reserve (1951)and later a fauna reserve (1953) and expanded to encompass more land in the 1960s. This displaced villages that had previously resided within the newly redrawn park borders. You will stay in one of the villages that were relocated as a result of this expansion (Ngognani Village).
   5. Home of Mt. Assirik (311m), one of the more notable mountains in Senegal and sometimes a home to chimpanzees
      1. Instead of the lush and full forests most chimpanzees inhabit, the ones who make their home in Niokolo Koba around Mt. Assirik live in relatively open and dry spaces, surrounded by fierce predators like lions, spotted hyenas, leopards and wild dogs
      2. Unpredictable flooding in the area makes it a less-than-ideal habitat for the chimpanzees but they have survived using unique tools and habits