Cross River National Park spans approximately 4,000 square kilometers of terrain in Cross River State, southeastern Nigeria. The southern division, Oban, was established in 1988 and covers 2,800 square kilometers of lowland rainforest accessible from the city of Calabar. The northern division, Okwangwo, came three years later in 1991, protecting 920 square kilometers of forest near the town of Ikom. Together, they form the largest remaining block of primary moist tropical rainforest in Nigeria, with mangrove swamps fringing the coastal zones. The Okwangwo division alone is home to roughly 78 percent of the primate species found in Nigeria, including the vulnerable common chimpanzee and the western gorilla. It is one of the most biologically dense patches of forest on the African continent.

The park was first proposed in 1965, but serious planning did not begin until 1988, when the World Wide Fund for Nature - UK took a leading role in its creation. The budget was ambitious: $49.9 million, with a plan that envisaged villages in the buffer zone running the park and receiving development aid in return. The Cross River gorilla was chosen as the park's emblem. But the vision outpaced the funding. When the park was officially established by federal decree in 1991, it included only existing forest reserves, a fraction of the original concept. After a small burst of initial aid, the money dried up. Villagers who had been promised a stake in the park's management became hostile to an administration that had delivered little. In 1999, an amending decree converted the Nigerian National Park Service into a paramilitary outfit with expanded enforcement powers, a shift from partnership to policing that deepened local resentment.

What the park lacks in institutional stability it compensates for in biological richness. Cross River National Park is recognized as a biodiversity hotspot for primates, particularly the endangered Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee and the drill, a large forest-dwelling monkey found only in this corner of West Africa. Gorillas, leopards, baboons, buffaloes, and forest elephants share the canopy and forest floor. Birdwatchers come for the hornbills and forest parrots. The Kanyang tourist village, about an hour's drive from Calabar, serves as a base for visitors, offering a lodge, restaurant, and wildlife museum. From there, the park opens up into game viewing, gorilla tracking, hiking, sport fishing, and boat cruises along the park's waterways. Entrance was free as of 2021, though guided trips and safari vehicles are available.

Both divisions face relentless pressure from illegal logging, slash-and-burn farming, and poaching. The tropical-humid climate, with temperatures ranging from 15 to 30 degrees Celsius and annual rainfall between 1,300 and 3,000 millimeters, produces forest that regenerates quickly but cannot keep pace with the rate of clearance. Ecotourism offers one path forward, connecting the park's survival to the economic interests of surrounding communities. Sustainable forestry programs in the buffer zones hold promise, too, if the funding materializes. For now, the park exists in a state of tension between its extraordinary biological wealth and the everyday pressures of a growing population that lives along its edges. The Cross River gorilla does not know it is the rarest great ape on earth. It only knows the forest, and whether that forest endures depends on what happens next.