Parc national marin Manyange na Elombo-Campo: An Essential Marine Protected Area in Cameroon

The origins of Manyange na Elombo-Campo lie in the regional conservation movements of the 1990s. Programs such as ECOFAC, the Central African Forests Commission (COMIFAC), and the Central Africa Protected Areas Network (RAPAC) encouraged Gulf of Guinea nations to develop protected areas, both inland and at sea. Researchers and environmental organisations, including WWF and Tropenbos International, documented the ecological and economic value of these zones, while nearby Gabon established coastal national parks beginning in 2002.

Despite these regional efforts, only a few marine protected areas materialised for many years. Equatorial Guinea strengthened its protected area system with a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan in 2014, and São Tomé and Príncipe created the Obô Forest National Park in 2006, but Cameroon's first marine reserve remained an unrealised commitment for decades.

At the Fifth IUCN World Parks Congress in Durban in September 2003, President Paul Biya announced the intention to create marine protected areas in Cameroon. It was not until July 2021, via national decree, that this promise finally took shape with the creation of Manyange na Elombo-Campo as Cameroon's first national marine park. Shortly after, in 2022, the UNDP began supporting the park with dedicated annual funding for community education programs and the assessment of human pressures on the marine environment.

The landscape of Manyange na Elombo-Campo is dominated by open Atlantic Ocean rather than terrestrial scenery. The protected zone sits along the equatorial Atlantic coast of Cameroon's South Region, roughly 30 kilometers south of the coastal city of Kribi.

The marine area begins a few hundred meters from the shoreline, leaving the immediate coastal strip available for traditional local fishing activities, and stretches far out to sea, covering a vast offshore territory. The seafloor in this part of the Gulf of Guinea includes continental shelf ecosystems, river-mouth environments, and deeper open waters that are used by migratory marine species.

At the park's southern edge, the maritime frontier with Equatorial Guinea follows the Rio Campo river, whose mouth and coastal drainage influence water quality and marine productivity in the reserve. While visitors will not find dramatic cliffs or mountain scenery here, the underwater topography and the interplay between river outflow, coastal currents, and Atlantic conditions define the park's distinctive physical setting.

Manyange na Elombo-Campo protects a particularly rich section of the Gulf of Guinea marine ecosystem. The waters combine coastal, estuarine, and open-ocean habitats, with the outflow of the Rio Campo shaping nutrient cycles and supporting a variety of marine life.

Four species of sea turtles, including leatherback, hawksbill, green, and olive ridley turtles, frequent the park's waters, and several of these species are considered threatened with extinction. The marine zone also serves as an essential corridor and habitat area for cetaceans, large pelagic fish, and coastal marine fauna that depend on the productive waters of the Gulf of Guinea.

By restricting industrial fishing activity and protecting spawning grounds, the park helps maintain the biological productivity of the broader Gulf of Guinea, linking Cameroon's marine ecosystems to those of Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. This regional ecological role makes the reserve an important node in the wider Central African marine biodiversity network.

The wildlife profile of Manyange na Elombo-Campo is one of its most powerful conservation arguments. The park is particularly notable for its cetaceans, which include humpback, long-beaked common, bottlenose, and striped dolphins, among others. The waters off Cameroon and Gabon are a major calving and breeding area for humpback whales, and these coastal waters are used by an estimated ten percent of the global population.

The Atlantic humpback dolphin, an endemic species once thought to have disappeared from the region, is one of the species whose presence justified the creation of the marine park. The reserve's waters also host the West African manatee, a vulnerable coastal mammal that depends on shallow, productive marine and estuarine habitats.

Sea turtles are another centerpiece of the park's wildlife value. Leatherback, hawksbill, green, and olive ridley turtles all occur in these waters, with several species facing serious extinction risk. Together, these varied marine fauna make Manyange na Elombo-Campo an area of considerable regional importance for threatened marine biodiversity.

Manyange na Elombo-Campo represents Cameroon's first formal commitment to marine protected area governance and is therefore a landmark in the country's conservation policy. The park was explicitly designed to limit industrial overfishing, safeguard spawning zones, and protect threatened marine species whose survival depends on the Gulf of Guinea's ecological integrity.

Its significance extends beyond Cameroon. The reserve is part of a cross-border ecosystem that includes Cameroon's forest-based Campo-Ma'an National Park and Equatorial Guinea's Rio Campo reserve, creating a continuous land-sea corridor around the Rio Campo river mouth. Although the formal integration of these protected areas is not yet legally settled, the ecological realities on the ground already link them as a single conservation landscape.

International support has been an important part of the park's early stage. Since 2022, the UNDP has contributed annual funding and technical assistance for educational programs and for assessing the human pressures affecting the marine environment. Together with governmental commitment and regional cooperation frameworks, this international backing positions the park as a key site for marine biodiversity protection in Central Africa.

The coastal communities along the South Region of Cameroon have long relied on the sea for fishing and small-scale livelihoods, and the park's design reflects this cultural relationship with the ocean. By leaving a narrow coastal strip available for traditional, low-impact fishing, the reserve deliberately accommodates the practices of local populations rather than excluding them.

This recognition of local dependence on marine resources is part of a broader regional narrative in which Gulf of Guinea states have promoted sustainable, community-aware conservation models, blending ecosystem protection with the maintenance of traditional ways of life along the coast.

Cameroon's first marine national park, created in 2021 and covering a vast Atlantic zone off the South Region.

Important calving and breeding area for humpback whales and home to the endemic Atlantic humpback dolphin, the West African manatee, and multiple threatened sea turtle species.

A cross-border conservation mosaic with Campo-Ma'an National Park and Equatorial Guinea's Rio Campo Reserve, safeguarding a continuous land-sea corridor around the Rio Campo river.

The park reflects a long regional effort led by ECOFAC, COMIFAC, and RAPAC, supported since 2022 by UNDP funding and technical assistance.

Marine parks in the Gulf of Guinea are best appreciated in the dry season, when sea conditions are calmer, visibility is more reliable, and shore-based access from the South Region is easier. Coastal Cameroon has a relatively consistent tropical climate, but reduced rainfall periods between late autumn and early spring often offer the most favorable conditions for observing marine wildlife and enjoying the coast.

For cetacean encounters, humpback whales are known to use Cameroon's waters as a breeding and calving zone, with their presence tied to specific seasonal movements along the Gulf of Guinea. Sea turtles, dolphins, and manatees can be encountered throughout much of the year, though sightings of nesting and feeding activity may concentrate around particular months tied to marine biological cycles.