Manovo-Gounda-Saint Floris National Park occupies an immense sweep of northeastern Central African Republic where Sahelian and Sudanian ecosystems meet. UNESCO inscribed the park on the World Heritage List in 1988, recognizing a landscape shaped by the Manovo, Koumbala and Gounda river basins and an exceptional transition between northern grasslands and more wooded southern savanna. At approximately 1.74 million hectares, it is one of Africa’s largest protected areas.
That inscription is not proof that the park remains ecologically intact. Manovo-Gounda-Saint Floris has been on the List of World Heritage in Danger since 1997. Poaching, armed insecurity, transhumance, illegal resource use and the weakness of permanent management have repeatedly undermined protection. Historic descriptions of abundant elephants, black rhinoceros, cheetahs, leopards, wild dogs, red-fronted gazelles and large waterbird concentrations explain the site’s outstanding universal value, but they must not be presented as a current wildlife guarantee.