Nouabal-Ndoki National Park is a national park in the Republic of the Congo. Established in 1993, north of Congo, it is mostly populated with elephants, apes, ranging from western lowland gorillas to chimpanzees and bongo. It is 3,921.61 km² of pristine tropical rain forest with no human habitation within it and with least habitation in the peripheral villages. The forests have a rich biodiversity of 300 bird species, plus 1,000 plant and tree species which include endangered mahoganies. In a conference of the Ministers of Forests of Central African Forest Commission, it had been resolved to establish within the Congo basin, the Sangha River Tri-national Protected area with a total area of 11,331 km² encompassing the Dzanga Sangha Special Reserve and the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park in the Central African Republic, the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo, and the Lobéké National Park in Cameroon. The concept of creating reserved parks emerged in the 1980s with the realization that wild roaming elephants which moved freely in the entire region of the three parks needed to be protected from poachers and the logging industry.