ABSTRACT
The Congo Basin is a repository of crucial mineral, wildlife, timber, water and carbon resources for regional and global markets. Only recently has the complicated social context for these natural resources become more visible through the efforts of researchers, activists and journalists. This chapter considers two transnational conservation initiatives in the western Congo Basin: the Tri-national Sangha Conservation Area, which contains three contiguous national parks (Dzanga-Sangha in Central African Republic, Nouabalé-Ndoki in Congo and Lobéké in Cameroon); and the TRIDOM (Tri-national Dja-Odzala-Minkebe), a project of corridors joining three national parks (Odzala in Congo, Dja in Cameroon and Minkébé in Gabon). We combined historical evidence from colonial archives with field research to depict transborder resource management in relation to various equatorial African social identities, changing ideas of spatial sovereignty and competing economic sectors.
