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Chinko, also known as Chinko Nature Reserve and the Chinko Project Area, is a protected area in the
Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of the C ...
. The nonprofit conservation organization African Parks began managing Chinko in partnership with the government of the Central African Republic in December 2014.


Description and terrain

Chinko is a 5.9 million hectare (or nearly 7,000 square miles) protected area in the southeastern part of the
Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of the C ...
, managed by the nonprofit conservation organization African Parks as part of a fifty-year
public–private partnership A public–private partnership (PPP, 3P, or P3) is a long-term arrangement between a government and private sector institutions.Hodge, G. A and Greve, C. (2007), Public–Private Partnerships: An International Performance Review, Public Administ ...
with the Ministry of Water, Forest, Hunting and Fishing. African Parks began managing Chinko in December 2014, becoming the eighth park to be included in the organization's management portfolio. David Simpson, who co-founded the project, serves as the park's manager. Chinko is located on a
volcanic plateau A volcanic plateau is a plateau produced by volcanic activity. There are two main types: lava plateaus and pyroclastic plateaus. Lava plateau Lava plateaus are formed by highly fluid basaltic lava during numerous successive eruptions th ...
, above sea level. Rain and other freshwater sources are plentiful, and
Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of th ...
bedrock erosion has created a layer of alluvial soil, allowing abundant and diverse wildlife to disperse throughout the region. The park has been described having uncommon geology, plentiful water, and a role as a "diversifying agent".


Flora and fauna

Chinko has of "uninhabited Medio-Sudanian and Sudano Guinean" wooded
savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
with some Congolese rainforest. These diverse ecosystems form an
ecotone An ecotone is a transition area between two biological communities, where two communities meet and integrate. It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and gras ...
within the Chinko River basin and support a variety of wildlife, including several primate species,
African forest elephant The African forest elephant (''Loxodonta cyclotis'') is one of the two living African elephant species. It is native to humid forests in West Africa and the Congo Basin. It is the smallest of the three living elephant species, reaching a shoulde ...
s, 23
even-toed ungulate The even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla , ) are ungulates—hoofed animals—which bear weight equally on two (an even number) of their five toes: the third and fourth. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing post ...
species, more than 20 types of carnivores, 5
anteater Anteater is a common name for the four extant mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua (meaning "worm tongue") commonly known for eating ants and termites. The individual species have other names in English and other languages. Together wi ...
mammals, and approximately 500 bird species. Carnivores include the
African wild dog The African wild dog (''Lycaon pictus''), also called the painted dog or Cape hunting dog, is a wild canine which is a native species to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest wild canine in Africa, and the only extant member of the genus '' Ly ...
,
leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia ...
,
lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...
, and
mongoose A mongoose is a small terrestrial carnivorous mammal belonging to the family Herpestidae. This family is currently split into two subfamilies, the Herpestinae and the Mungotinae. The Herpestinae comprises 23 living species that are native to ...
. Other species include: African buffalo,
bongo Bongo may refer to: Entertainment * ''Bongo'' (Australian TV series), on air from August to November 1960 * Bongo Comics, a comic book publishing company * Bongo (''Dragon Ball'') or Krillin, a character in ''Dragon Ball'' media * ''Bongo'' ...
, chimpanzee,
monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incom ...
,
crocodile Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant ...
, Eastern giant eland,
giant forest hog The giant forest hog (''Hylochoerus meinertzhageni''), the only member of its genus (''Hylochoerus''), is native to wooded habitats in Africa and is generally considered the largest wild member of the pig family, Suidae; however, a few subspeci ...
,
hartebeest The hartebeest (; ''Alcelaphus buselaphus''), also known as kongoni or kaama, is an African antelope. It is the only member of the genus ''Alcelaphus''. Eight subspecies have been described, including two sometimes considered to be indepen ...
(including Lelwel hartebeest), red forest duiker,
warthog ''Phacochoerus'' is a genus in the family Suidae, commonly known as warthogs (pronounced ''wart-hog''). They are pigs who live in open and semi-open habitats, even in quite arid regions, in sub-Saharan Africa. The two species were formerly con ...
,
waterbuck The waterbuck (''Kobus ellipsiprymnus'') is a large antelope found widely in sub-Saharan Africa. It is placed in the genus '' Kobus'' of the family Bovidae. It was first described by Irish naturalist William Ogilby in 1833. Its 13 subspecies ar ...
, and yellow-backed duiker. The reserve is home to dozens of endangered species, and the following bird species: black-bellied bustards,
buzzard Buzzard is the common name of several species of birds of prey. ''Buteo'' species * Archer's buzzard (''Buteo archeri'') * Augur buzzard (''Buteo augur'') * Broad-winged hawk (''Buteo platypterus'') * Common buzzard (''Buteo buteo'') * Eastern ...
s,
guineafowl Guineafowl (; sometimes called "pet speckled hens" or "original fowl") are birds of the family Numididae in the order Galliformes. They are endemic to Africa and rank among the oldest of the gallinaceous birds. Phylogenetically, they branched o ...
,
hoopoe Hoopoes () are colourful birds found across Africa, Asia, and Europe, notable for their distinctive "crown" of feathers. Three living and one extinct species are recognized, though for many years all of the extant species were lumped as a single ...
s,
hornbill Hornbills (Bucerotidae) are a family of bird found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a casque on the upper mandib ...
s,
kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania ...
s, secretarybirds,
stone partridge The stone partridge (''Ptilopachus petrosus'') is a bird of the New World quail family. This largely brown bird, which commonly holds its tail raised, is found in scrubland and lightly wooded habitats, often near rocks, from Kenya and Ethiopia to ...
, and
sunbird Sunbirds and spiderhunters make up the family Nectariniidae of passerine birds. They are small, slender passerines from the Old World, usually with downward-curved bills. Many are brightly coloured, often with iridescent feathers, particularly ...
s. Chinko, being an extensive block of pristine habitat, can provide the genetic diversity to recolonize the surrounding regions when populations there dwindle or become locally extinct.


History

Chinko previously served as a hunting reserve and was home to thousands of buffalo, elephant, and lion. The area saw significant decreases in wildlife populations during the 1980s–2000s because of cattle grazing, the
ivory trade The ivory trade is the commercial, often illegal trade in the ivory tusks of the hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, mammoth, and most commonly, African and Asian elephants. Ivory has been traded for hundreds of years by people in Africa and ...
, and poaching. In 2002, it was reported that as much as 95 percent of wildlife in the Chinko region was lost. Erik Mararv and his family acquired a hunting concession in 2005 and launched a safari operation called Central African Wildlife Adventures in 2006. During the safari's six years of operating, the Mararv family built two airstrips, guest rooms, and hundreds of miles of roads, imported machinery and trucks, and trained staff. David Simpson started working as a pilot for the safari company in 2010, and was asked by Mararv to return as general manager the following year. Foreign pastoralists, known as the Wodaabe (or Mbororo), started herding in more remote parts of the Central African Republic, including Chinko and surrounding areas, around 2012. The additional cattle grazing,
overgrazing Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves, or nature ...
, poaching, and
wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...
s contributed to
deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then land conversion, converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban area, urban ...
,
desertification Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly arid. It is the spread of arid areas caused b ...
, and
erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is di ...
. The
United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...
contributed nearly $100,000 in 2013 to reduce poaching by training rangers and reaching out to local communities to increase awareness of conservation efforts. Simpson co-created the Chinko Project to protect the area's habitat and wildlife, and began managing the park when African Parks took over operations in 2014. Thierry Aebischer, Raffael Hickisch, and Erik Mararv have also been credited as partners of the project. Chinko had fifty park rangers in February 2016. In mid 2016, Simpson was reportedly managing 400 staff members and a $2.5 million budget, and Chinko was "the only major tax-generating entity in the entire eastern half of the
Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of the C ...
, and one of the largest employers and importers of foreign goods in the country". Chinko staff collected more than 700,000 wildlife sightings from motion-activated cameras by mid 2016, and used a small aircraft to identify and track animals and park intruders. Fondation Segré partnered with African Parks in 2016 to hire and train rangers, construct operations centers, improve communications technology, purchase equipment, and enhance data management. In January 2017, a helicopter chartered by African Parks crashed, killing the park's head of law enforcement, his deputy, and the pilot.


See also

*
List of protected areas of the Central African Republic The country of the Central African Republic in Africa has the following national parks and other protected areas. National parks * André Félix National Park * Bamingui-Bangoran National Park *Dzanga-Ndoki National Park * Mbaéré Bodingué Nat ...
*
Wildlife of the Central African Republic Wildlife in the Central African Republic is in the vast natural habitat located between the Congo Basin's rain forests and large savannas, where the human density was smaller than 0.5 per km2 prior to 1850. The forest area of 22.755 million, cons ...


References


Further reading

*


External links

* {{African Parks African Parks (organisation) Protected areas of the Central African Republic Northern Congolian forest–savanna mosaic