Human Landscape
There are five principal settlements in the concessions adjacent to the Nouabalé Ndoki National Park.
Pokola, once a sleepy village of 400 people along the Sangha river, is the base of logging operations for CIB and houses several sawmills. Over the past five years its population has doubled to over 13,000 people. The industrial logging site at Kabo was founded almost 30 years ago by the logging company Societé Bois Sangha and is also the site of two sawmills. Ndoki I, Ndoki II, and Loundoungou are all advanced forest camps for exploitation teams.
The population density in the northern region of the Congo is relatively low, with less than 0.7 people per square kilometer. However, many of the inhabitants living in the major settlements are immigrants from other parts of Congo and neighboring countries, who have come to the region to profit from the employment opportunities and service industries created by the logging company. These immigrants have a great deal of spending power relative to the rest of the country, and so form a lucrative market for the commercial bushmeat trade.