Virunga National Park (French: Parc national des Virunga, abbreviated as PNVi) is a protected area in the Albertine Rift Valley in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was established in 1925. The park’s elevation ranges from 680 meters (2,230 feet) in the Semliki River valley to 5,109 meters (16,762 feet) in the Rwenzori Mountains. From north to south, the park spans about 300 kilometers (190 miles), mostly along the borders with Uganda and Rwanda to the east. It covers an area of 7,800 square kilometers (3,000 square miles). The park is bordered by the Puemba River to the north and Tchegera Island in Lake Kivu to the south.

Two active volcanoes, Mount Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira, are located within the park. These volcanoes have greatly influenced the park’s varied habitats and wildlife. More than 3,000 species of animals and plants have been recorded in the park, including over 300 species found only in the Albertine Rift. These include the eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei) and the golden monkey (Cercopithecus kandti).

In 1979, the park was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List because of its wide variety of habitats, high number of unique species, and its role in protecting the habitat of mountain gorillas. Since 1994, the park has been listed on the List of World Heritage in Danger due to fighting in the region and increased human activity.

There have been several deadly attacks in the park by rebel groups, and many park rangers have been killed during these events.

Politics

Plans to drill for oil in the Congo Basin began in the 2000s. In 2021, an agreement between the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow helped protect the area. However, by July 2022, the government weakened this protection by offering oil exploration areas inside the park for sale. Companies such as Tullow Oil Plc, TotalEnergies, ENI, and China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd (CNOOC) wanted to get permission to drill. Local and international groups, including Greenpeace, are warning about the harm to people and the environment caused by drilling in the forest. People who try to raise awareness about these issues are being threatened and harassed online.

History

In the early 1920s, people who supported protecting nature in Europe worked to create a protected area in northeastern Belgian Congo. Victor van Straelen, Jean Massart, and Jean-Marie Derscheid were among those who supported this idea. In April 1925, Albert National Park was created as the first national park in the Congo. It was designed to study and protect wildlife and the African Pygmies, who were hunter-gatherers. In 1926, Derscheid led the first Belgian team to map the park, which covered 500 km² around the extinct volcanoes Mount Karisimbi and Mount Mikeno. In 1929, the park was expanded to include Virunga National Park, which covered the Virunga Mountains, parts of the Rutshuru Territory, and plains near Lake Edward. The park’s size grew over time. Indigenous people lost their land rights and were forced to leave the area. Between the late 1930s and 1955, about 85,000 Rwandophone people were moved to Masisi in North Kivu.

In 1934, the Institut des Parcs Nationaux du Congo Belge was created to manage national parks in the Belgian Congo. From the 1930s until 1961, Belgian scientists explored Albert National Park. They collected wildlife specimens for the Musée Royal d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique, studied local groups, and researched volcanoes and fossils. In the late 1950s, Tutsi herders and their cattle entered the park, damaging habitats up to 3,000 meters in altitude, which was believed to threaten gorillas.

After Belgian Congo became independent in 1960 as the Republic of the Congo, land laws changed. The land was declared state property, which hurt local people. Illegal hunting increased in protected areas. In 1969, Albert and Virunga National Parks were combined into Virunga National Park. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. In 1996, the park was added to the Ramsar List of international importance.

In 2011, the British company Soco International was given permission to explore for oil near the park. Some government officials supported the exploration, but park managers opposed it. Tensions grew, and in 2014, the park’s chief warden, Emmanuel de Mérode, was attacked. After international protests, Soco International stopped its activities and agreed not to explore near World Heritage sites.

In August 2015, the Minister of Tourism and Culture launched four new projects, including Tchegera Island and a road to Mount Mikeno. By 2016, four hydropower dams were built, providing electricity to small businesses and helping over 200,000 rural people.

Since the early 1990s, the park has been affected by political problems in the African Great Lakes region. After the Rwandan genocide, thousands of refugees fled to the Kivu region, and military presence increased. The First and Second Congo Wars made the area unstable. Park rangers and wildlife were killed, and anti-poaching patrols were blocked. In 1994, about 850,000 refugees lived near the park, and up to 40,000 people entered the park daily to find food and firewood, causing large areas of forest to be destroyed. Virunga National Park was added to the List of World Heritage in Danger in 1994.

After the Second Congo War, conflicts between park staff and rebel groups continued. Between 1996 and 2003, 80 park workers were killed. Rebel groups like the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) controlled parts of the park, including the Mikeno sector, from 2006 to 2009.

In 2005, the European Commission suggested a partnership between the government and the African Conservation Fund, a British organization. The African Conservation Fund has managed the park since 2010, with about 80% of management costs covered by the European Commission. In the following years, park protection became more militarized to stop rebels and poachers. Rangers received military-style training and used advanced weapons, working with the military and security services.

Some people criticize this approach as "militarization of conservation," saying it has caused more violence and forced local communities, like the Mbuti, to leave their lands or risk being arrested or killed by rangers. People living in or near the park depend on farming, hunting, fishing, logging, and charcoal production for survival, but these activities are illegal. They rely on armed groups for protection, and fees are taken from these illegal activities. A 2010 UN report said that 80% of the charcoal used in Goma comes from the park, worth about $28–30 million annually. Both government forces and armed groups also commit armed robberies and kidnappings for money.

Conservation efforts have had mixed results. For example, when farms were destroyed in Kibirizi, soldiers and rangers patrolled the area, forcing people to move deeper into the park, where they rented land from the FDLR. In 2015, a local Mai-Mai group in Binza tried to reclaim land for fishing, leading to

Geography

Virunga National Park is located in the Congo–Nile watershed area and is divided into three administrative sectors: North, Central, and South. The Northern Sector borders Uganda’s Semuliki National Park and Rwenzori Mountains National Park. Elevations in this sector range from 680 meters (2,230 feet) in the Puemba River valley to Mount Stanley, the highest peak at 5,109 meters (16,762 feet), within 30 kilometers (19 miles). This sector covers 299,523 hectares, making it the park’s largest land-based area. It stretches from the Puemba River to Lake Edward and includes the Semliki River, the Rwenzori Mountains, and Mount Tshiaberimu.

The Central Sector includes the western and southern shores of Lake Edward, as well as the Rwindi–Rutshuru plains up to Mabenga. It also includes the Lulimbi area along the Ishasha River, which forms the boundary with Uganda and is sometimes called the Eastern Sector. This sector spans 339,179 hectares, including 144,548 hectares of Lake Edward itself.

The Southern Sector is dominated by the Virunga Mountains, reaching elevations up to 4,500 meters. According to Janvier Bagula Karumba, this sector covers 145,672 hectares, extending from south of Mount Kasali to the northern shore of Lake Kivu. It contains seven of the eight volcanoes in the massif, including two of Africa’s most active: Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira, while Mount Mikeno is dormant. This area has been protected since 1925 and is mostly covered by Afromontane forest. The park’s administrative center is in Rumangabo near the gorilla enclosure, and the Mount Mikeno Hotel is a major tourist facility. This sector, along with Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park and Uganda’s Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, forms the Greater Virunga Volcanoes ecosystem.

The boundary zone between the Central and Southern Sectors is rich in biodiversity. It includes Lake Ondo, the Kibuga pond, marshlands at the ends of lava flows, and the Molindi spring. Nearly 75% of the lower Rutshuru River’s water comes from the Molindi River, which resurfaces rainfall absorbed by southern lava fields. This area lies just north of the Congo watershed divide, which is unusually underground.

The climate in the Albertine Rift is influenced by the movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. The main rainy seasons occur from March to mid-May and September to November. Monthly rainfall averages 30–40 millimeters (1.2–1.6 inches) in the savanna around Lake Edward, the driest part of the landscape. The Northern Sector receives up to 220 millimeters (8.7 inches) of monthly rainfall, and the Southern Sector receives up to 160 millimeters (6.3 inches). Average temperatures in lower altitudes range from 23–28°C (73–82°F), and in higher altitudes from 16–24°C (61–75°F), rarely dropping below 14°C (57°F).

Flora

Virunga National Park has 2,077 plant species, including 264 types of trees and 230 plants found only in the Albertine Rift. The park's plains are mainly wetlands and grasslands. These areas include plants like papyrus sedge (Cyperus papyrus), jointed flatsedge (C. articulatus), common reed (Phragmites mauritanica), sacaton grasses (Sporobolus consimilis), ambatch (Aeschynomene elaphroxylon), conkerberry (Carissa spinarum), paperbark thorn (Vachellia sieberiana), and kowai fruit (Coccinia grandis). Scientists found remains of dicot plants, such as African caper (Capparis tomentosa), Maerua species, wild cucurbits, and nightshades, in the dung of African elephants (Loxodonta). These elephants help spread seeds across the grasslands.

In the southern part of the park, the montane forest between 1,800 and 2,800 meters (5,900 and 9,200 feet) has many trees, including Ficalhoa laurifolia and Podocarpus milanjianus, which can grow up to 25 meters (82 feet) tall. African alpine bamboo (Yushania alpina) grows at elevations of 2,300–2,600 meters (7,500–8,500 feet). Above 2,600 meters (8,500 feet), the vegetation becomes subalpine, with Hagenia abyssinica (African redwood) growing up to 3,000 meters (9,800 feet). Tree heath (Erica arborea), heather, and mosses cover wet slopes up to 3,700 meters (12,100 feet). Plants like Senecio and Lobelia grow on open areas and can reach heights of up to 8 meters (26 feet).

Fauna

Virunga National Park is home to many animal species. As of 2012, the park includes 196 types of mammals, 706 bird species, 109 reptiles, and 65 amphibians.

Primates living in the park include mountain gorillas (G. b. beringei), common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), golden monkeys, red-tailed monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius), Dent's mona monkeys (C. denti), blue monkeys (C. mitis), Hamlyn's monkeys (C. hamlyni), De Brazza's monkeys (C. neglectus), Central African red colobus (Procolobus foai), mantled guereza (Colobus guereza), olive baboons (Papio anubis), and grey-cheeked mangabeys (Lophocebus albigena).

African bush elephants (Loxodonta africana), hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius), and African buffaloes (Syncerus caffer) live in the park's central area. In the northern sector, animals recorded in 2008 include okapis (Okapia johnstoni), blue duikers (Philantomba monticola), bay duikers (Cephalophus dorsalis), Weyns's duikers (C. weynsi), yellow-backed duikers (C. silvicultor), water chevrotains (Hyemoschus aquaticus), red river hogs (Potamochoerus porcus), aardvarks (Orycteropus afer), and bongos (Tragelaphus eurycerus). The southern sector has harnessed bushbucks (T. scriptus) and giant forest hogs (Hylochoerus meinertzhageni). All topi (Damaliscus lunatus jimela) are found near Lake Edward in the Ishasha Flats region and often cross into Uganda. Other hoofed animals in the park include Ugandan kobs (Kobus kob thomasi), waterbucks (K. ellipsiprymnus), and common warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus).

Virunga National Park and Queen Elizabeth National Park together form a "Lion Conservation Unit." This area could become a strong home for lions (Panthera leo) if poaching stops and prey species recover. In the northern sector, animals recorded in 2008 include African leopards (P. pardus pardus), marsh mongooses (Atilax paludinosus), giant pangolins (Smutsia gigantea), tree pangolins (Phataginus tricuspis), crested porcupines (Hystrix cristata), Lord Derby's scaly-tailed squirrels (Anomalurus derbianus), Boehm's bush squirrels (Paraxerus boehmi), western tree hyraxes (Dendrohyrax dorsalis), Emin's pouched rats (Cricetomys emini), and checkered elephant shrews (Rhynchocyon cirnei).

The Semliki River provides habitat for Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus). Some were seen near Lake Edward in 1988 for the first time.

In the southern sector, surveys in 2004 found several birds native to the Albertine Rift, including Rwenzori turacos, Rwenzori batisses, Archer's ground robins, red-throated alethes, Kivu ground thrushes, collared apalises, mountain masked apalises, dusky crimson-wings, Shelley's crimsonwings, red-faced woodland warblers, stripe-breasted tits, blue-headed sunbirds, regal sunbirds, Rwenzori double-collared sunbirds, handsome spurfowls, and strange weavers. Non-native birds recorded include Wahlberg's eagles, African goshawks, African hobbies, harrier hawks, common buzzards, mountain buzzards, hadedas ibises, grey-crowned cranes, black-and-white-casqued hornbills, black-billed turacos, African olive pigeons, tambourine doves, blue-spotted wood doves, red-eyed doves, brown-necked parrots, red-chested cuckoos, olive long-tailed cuckoos, barred long-tailed cuckoos, Klaas's cuckoos, Diederik cuckoos, blue-headed coucals, Narina trogons, white-headed wood hoopoes, white-necked ravens, white-tailed crested flycatchers, African paradise flycatchers, white-eyed slaty flycatchers, African dusky flycatchers, white-tailed blue flycatchers, mountain orioles, speckled mousebirds, cinnamon-chested bee-eaters, grey-throated barbets, yellow-billed barbets, western tinkerbirds, yellow-rumped tinkerbirds, cardinal woodpeckers, olive woodpeckers, black saw-wings, Angola swallows, Alpine swifts, mountain greenbuls, yellow-whiskered greenbuls, common bulbuls, white-starred robins, Archer's ground robins, white-browed robin-chats, African stonechats, rufous thrushes, African thrushes, olive thrushes, grassland pipits, cinnamon bracken warblers, black-faced rufous warblers, mountain yellow warblers, brown woodland warblers, green sandpipers, Chubb's cisticolas, banded prinias, chestnut-throated apalises, grey-backed camaropteras, white-browed crombecs, black-throated wattle-eyes, chinspot batisses, mountain illadopises, grey-chested illadopises, olive sunbirds, bronze sunbirds, malachite sunbirds, collared sunbirds, variable sunbirds, yellow white-eyes, Mackinnon's shrikes, Doherty's bushshrikes, Lühder's bushshrikes, northern puffbacks, mountain sooty boubous, tropical boubous, narrow-tailed starlings, Sharpe's starlings, baglafecht weavers, black bishops, grey-headed nigratas, common waxbills, black-headed waxbills, bronze mannikins, black and white mannikins, pin-tailed whydahs, African citrils, streaky seedeaters, and thick-billed seedeaters.

Ethnic groups

People from different ethnic groups who live in and around Virunga National Park include the following groups:

• Mbuti people
• Nande people
• Hunde people
• Kumu people
• Hutu people
• Tutsi people
• Basongora

Media coverage

The documentary Virunga shows the work of rangers at Virunga National Park and the actions of the British oil company Soco International in the park. Ndakasi, a gorilla living in the park, appeared in several television shows and movies, such as the Netflix documentary.