Comoé National Park Research Station

Comoé National Park Research Station
Laboratory with solar panels
Location	Côte d'Ivoire
Nearest city	Bouna
Coordinates	8°46′11″N 3°47′21″W / 8.76972°N 3.78917°W / 8.76972; -3.78917Coordinates: 8°46′11″N 3°47′21″W / 8.76972°N 3.78917°W / 8.76972; -3.78917
Established	1989/90

The Comoé National Park Research Station, located in the Comoé National Park, Côte d'Ivoire, was founded by Professor Karl Eduard Linsenmair in 1989/90. Its state of the art facilities, with electricity, running water, Internet and a large climatised laboratory make it one of the most modern field stations in Africa. The research station was forced to close after the outbreak of the First Ivorian Civil War in 2002. After the end of the Second Ivorian Civil War in 2011 repairs at the station began and in 2014 the station had achieved again its full working capacity. The focus of the field based research is on conservation, tropical ecology and behaviour.

In 1989/90 a first research camp was realized with substantial funding provided by the Volkswagen Stiftung, the University of Würzburg and the respective Ministry (Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Bildung und Kultus, Wissenschaft und Kunst). A successful application for a research grant by Linsenmair at the Fritz Thyssen Foundation led to the expansion and transformation into a permanent station, after various bureaucratic hurdles in Germany and Côte d'Ivoire, which delayed the construction of the field station approximately 8 years. Construction started in 2000 and in early 2002 all guesthouses and other buildings apart from the lab were finished and a move from the camp to the new station was possible.

The outbreak of the First Ivorian Civil War, in September 2002, resulted in the loss of the entire removable and demountable equipment and the closure of the station. Due to the positive development in the country after the Second Ivorian Civil War, the rehabilitation of the station started in 2012 with remaining funds from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation and the University of Würzburg. With the construction of the solar plant, in December 2014, the rehabilitation was finished and the station had achieved its full working capacity again, making it one of the most modern field research stations in Africa.