Reference Land Cover Change in Lomami 2000-2015 (vector) - version 1, Sep. 2019

This metadata refers to the Land Cover Change vector data generated over Lomami (Africa) in the framework of the Copernicus Global Land Hot Spot Mapping (C-GL-HSM) contract under the coordination of JRC. This area of interest is either mapped with the generic 8 classes dichotomus legend (CAF_15_lcc_a) or the detailed modular legend (CAF_15_lcc_b).

The mapped area of interest (AOI) represents a Key Landscape for Conservation area (KLC). It is situated in the central part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The KLC has a total size of about 3.1 million ha (31,000 km²), while the Lomami National Park within the KLC has a total area of 8,873 km².
The Lomami National Park is the most recent established park in DRC, created in 2016. The park lies in the mostly undiscovered Lomami rainforest basin with very little human settlements and activities. Tropical lowland forest, savannah islands and riverine forest characterise the area. The park is rich in wildlife including large national endemic mammals such as okapi, the Congolese bonobo and a newly discovered monkey species named lesula (cercopithecus lomamiensis). Prior to park establishment the outer forests were mostly depleted of large animals by the commercial bushmeat trade (causing the nearly local extinction of the forest elephant in the southern part of the park). (https://www.congonationalparks.com/places/lomami-national-park/).

Reference time: 2000 - 2015