Qualla: Okomu National Park https://qualla.com/okomu-national-park en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/1/5/u/okomu-national-park-wk/hero-small.webp Qualla: Okomu National Park https://qualla.com/okomu-national-park Okomu National Park: Introduction https://qualla.com/okomu-national-park/ Photo credit Himalayan Explorer based on work by Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. The forest elephants are still here, though you are unlikely to see one. They move through the understory of Okomu National Park like rumors, their presence confirmed more often by tracks and broken branches than by direct sighting. This 200-square-kilometer block of rainforest in Edo State is what remains of a woodland that once stretched in a continuous belt from the Niger River westward to the Dahomey Gap in Benin, 50 to 100 kilometers wide. Villages have pressed inward from every side, and as of 2021 the park covers less than a third of its original area. What survives is not just a nature reserve. It is the last viable habitat for species that have nowhere else to go.

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Image: Himalayan Explorer based on work by Uwe Dedering | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/1/5/u/okomu-national-park-wk/s15u-okomu-national-park-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Okomu National Park: From Sanctuary to National Park https://qualla.com/okomu-national-park/ Photo credit Himalayan Explorer based on work by Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. Okomu's protected status has been assembled in stages, each one an attempt to outpace the encroachment closing in around it. The original Okomu Forest Reserve was established in 1935 during the colonial era. For decades it existed as a reserve in name but with limited enforcement...

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Image: Himalayan Explorer based on work by Uwe Dedering | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/1/5/u/okomu-national-park-wk/s15u-okomu-national-park-from-sanctuary-to-national-park.mp3 0:06 2 full Okomu National Park: What Lives in the Canopy https://qualla.com/okomu-national-park/ Photo credit Himalayan Explorer based on work by Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. Okomu's species list reads like an inventory of what Nigerian lowland rainforests once supported in abundance. Thirty-three mammal species have been documented, including African buffalo and the endangered African forest elephant. The birdlife is richer still: over 200 species ha...

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Image: Himalayan Explorer based on work by Uwe Dedering | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/1/5/u/okomu-national-park-wk/s15u-okomu-national-park-what-lives-in-the-canopy.mp3 0:06 3 full Okomu National Park: Treehouses Above the Forest Floor https://qualla.com/okomu-national-park/ Photo credit Himalayan Explorer based on work by Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. Two elevated observation platforms sit at Lakes 64 and 52, offering visitors views across the canopy from above the forest floor. The treehouse at Lake 52 perches high enough to survey the surrounding greenery and spot movement in the treetops. Below, the Okomu and Osse rivers an...

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Image: Himalayan Explorer based on work by Uwe Dedering | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/1/5/u/okomu-national-park-wk/s15u-okomu-national-park-treehouses-above-the-forest-floor.mp3 0:06 4 full Okomu National Park: The Forest That Keeps Shrinking https://qualla.com/okomu-national-park/ Photo credit Himalayan Explorer based on work by Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. Okomu's story is one of persistent loss held barely in check. The lowland forests that once formed a nearly continuous belt across southern Nigeria have been fragmented by agriculture, logging, and settlement. What remains at Okomu is ecologically significant precisely because so...

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Image: Himalayan Explorer based on work by Uwe Dedering | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/1/5/u/okomu-national-park-wk/s15u-okomu-national-park-the-forest-that-keeps-shrinking.mp3 0:06 5 full