Protecting the Garden of Eden

Abstract

At first sight, the Central African rainforest is a picturesque paradise, filled with luscious vegetation, amazing animals, and birds of all kinds. Openings in the closed canopy forest (known as ‘bais’ in the local Ba’aka language), where animals come together to feed off of the nutritious and enriched earth, forbs, sedges and grasses, make it a true Garden of Eden. Lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, forest buffalo, moustached monkeys, blue duiker and forest elephants are some of the mammals that inhabit the forest, which stretches millions of square kilometres across west, central and into east Africa.