The name 'trinational' means 'three nations', and that is exactly what this place is — a collaboration between three neighbouring countries who decided that the forest is too precious and too big for any one of them to protect alone. In total the protected area covers about 750,000 square kilometres — an area bigger than France.
Because the forest is so vast and barely disturbed by people, it holds extraordinary numbers of wildlife. Western lowland gorillas, forest elephants, chimpanzees, bongo antelopes, African grey parrots and hundreds of butterfly species all live here. The rivers are full of fish, hippos and crocodiles too.
The Sangha River flows through the heart of the trinational area, and local communities who have lived near the forest for thousands of years continue to use it sustainably — fishing, gathering plants and passing on deep knowledge of the forest to their children. Scientists and local people work together to keep the whole ecosystem healthy.