Virunga National Park is a World Heritage Site in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DCR) that contains within 790,000 hectares (ha) the greatest diversity of habitats of any park in Africa: from steppes, savannas and lava plains, swamps, lowland and montane forests to volcanoes and the unique giant herbs and snowfields of Rwenzori over 5,000 meters (m) high. It is. Thousands of hippopotamuses lived in its rivers, its mountains are a critical area for the survival of mountain and lowland gorillas, and birds from Siberia overwinter there.

The Park was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 1994 after civil war in Rwanda and the influx of 1.5 - 2 million refugees into Kivu province. This led to massive uncontrollable poaching and deforestation: 9,000 hippopotamus were killed; fuelwood cut for refugee camps was estimated at 600 metric tons/day, depleting and erasing the lowland forests. Most of the staff were unpaid and lacked means to patrol the 650 kilometer (km) -long boundary. The north and center of the park were successively abandoned; many guards were killed. Protective soldiery also turned to poaching. The fishing village near Lake Rutanzige grew to threaten the integrity of the Park. Most of the gorillas living higher up the mountains have survived but tourism ceased. The park has become a threatened island in a sea of subsistence cultivation.

In 1996, the World Heritage Committee recognized that major effort would be needed for at least ten years after this tragedy to rehabilitate and restore management of the Park and regain local support for its conservation. The UNHCR and other agencies in charge of refugee camps sited within and on the edges of Virunga were contacted and the government informed of the Committee's wish to help the IUCN and world institutions by providing training and technical assistance to deal with the threats to the park.

Date And History of Establishment

* 1929: Established as an extension of the Albert National Park, founded in 1925, the first in Africa;

* 1969: Revised by Decree No. 69-041 as Virunga National Park, excluding a part which became the Parc National des Volcans in Rwanda;

* 1996: Designated a Ramsar site (800,000 ha).

Area

790,000 ha. Contiguous for 45 km with the Rwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda (99,600 ha), also a World Heritage Site, for 50 km with the Parc National des Volcans in Rwanda (15,000ha) and for a few kilometers with Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (2,900 ha) in Uganda, all potential elements of a transboundary park.

Land Tenure

Government, 95% in Kivu Province, 5% in Haut-Zaire. Administered by the Institut Congolais (formerly Zairois) pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN).

Altitude

798 m in the north, 916 m at Lake Rutanzige to 4,506 m on Mt. Karisimbi in the Virunga Mountains and 5,119 m in the Mt. Margherita peak of Mount Ngaliema (Mt. Stanley) in the Rwenzori range.

Physical Features

The park lies in the western (Albertine) rift valley and on the adjacent mountains. It includes five main biomes: the forested granitic Rwenzori and volcanic Virunga massifs, lowland forest, savanna, and swamp-edged lake. It has three sections: North: half the forested Semliki valley north of Lake Rutanzige, with half the central part of the Rwenzori range to its east; Central: two-thirds of the shores of Lake Rutanzige and most of the lowland valley swamps and savannas of the Rwindi, Rutshuru and Ishasha rivers to its south; and South: the Nyamuragira - Nyiragongo lava plateau and the northwestern fifth of the volcanic Virunga massif, shared with Rwanda.

The area in the Virungas comprises the flanks of volcanic Mts. Karisimbi, Mikeno, Visoke, Sabinyo, Nyamuragira and Nyiragongo (3,469 m), the last two still very active: an eruption of Nyiragongo destroyed 14 villages and an estimated 40% of the town of Goma on Lake Kivu in January 2002, and Nyamuragira twice erupted later that year. All of the Park's waters flow into the Nile system except for the Lake Kivu drainage which flows to the Congo. The steep western face of the Rwenzoris is glaciated and shares the third (Mt. Ngaliema), fourth and fifth highest mountains in Africa with Rwenzori National Park in Uganda. Biotopes include lakes at various elevations, marshy deltas and peat bogs, hot springs (at Ma-yamoto) and saline soils in the Rwindi plains, steppes, savannas and lava plains, lowland equatorial forest, dry and transitional forests, high montane forests, and alpine heath in the Rwenzori. The whole length of the Park is bordered to the west by unprotected but species-rich forested mountains.

Climate

The areas of lowest and highest rainfall in the D.R.C. are found in Virunga National Park less than 75 km apart. Rain falls all year but more heavily from March to May and mid-September to mid-December, with drier spells following each. Annual rainfall averages 500 millimeters (mm) at Lake Rutanzige, 900-1,500 mm on the plains south of the lake, decreases higher on the volcanoes but on the west slope of the Rwenzoris orographic precipitation is almost 3,000 mm. These mountains have heavier snowfall than Mounts Kenya or Kilimanjaro, are permanently ice and snow-covered and carry small retreating glaciers. Their 4,000 m attitudinal range results in marked climatic variations with a consequent diversity of habitats. The mean annual temperature in the lowlands is between 20o and 23oC with a 12oC diurnal range.

Vegetation

The region was originally a vast forest refuge for innumerable species, largely deforested during the 20th century. The Park borders several biogeographical zones and covers three major habitat types: open grassland, closed forest and humid montane. Within these it protects a very wide variety of habitats. 1,938 species have been recorded. The following is based on the 1980 IZCN Biosphere Reserve submission to UNESCO.

The open land habitats grade from steppe to savanna to swamp, the result of low rainfall, soil type, grazing and fire. 1): grassy Chrysochloa orientalis steppe to bushy steppe with Carissa edulis, Capparis tomentosa, Maerua spp.and Euphorbia candelabrum; 2): low savanna with Themeda triandra and Imperata cylindrica; 3): grassy savannas of three types - Pennisetum in the Semliki valley, Cymbopogon on the plains around the lake and Hyparrhenia in the far north; 4): bushy savannas - Combretum-wooded Hyperthelia dissoluta savanna and Acacia seiberiana-A. gerrardii woodland, both on the Mitumba foothills west of the lake; 5): transitional grasslands - Craterostigma nanum prairies and Sporobolus spp. savanna; 6): riverine grasslands - Cyperus papyrus marsh, Phragmites australis marsh; and 7): aquatic vegetation.

Forest habitats grade from thickets to dense forests. 1): thickets around the lake and on Mt. Misali; 2): thick sclerophyllous forest of Euphorbia dawei in the southwest; 3): lava plain pioneer species in all stages of recolonization, culminating on loose soils in Neoboutonia macrocalyx forest; 4): dense equatorial forest over half the northern sector; 5): gallery forests - shade-loving forest on the upper Rwindi, a fringe of Phoenix reclinata on the lower Rutshuru and drier forests on the upper Semliki; 6): dense montane forest from 1,800 to 2,300 m on Rwenzori and on Mt. Tshiaberimu west of the lake, on Mt Kasali south of the plains, on Mt. Kamatembe in the southwest and on the Virunga massif between 1,750 and 2,600 m.

Montane habitats grade from transitional foothill forest to alpine zones. 1): Arundinaria alpina bamboo woodland on the slopes of all the larger mountains; 2): Hagenia abyssinica woodland becoming bushy, mixed with large hardy perennials like Peucedanum kerstenii; 3): a high scrub layer, then tree heath of Erica and Philippia species, associated on the Virungas with Podocarpus latifolius, on Rwenzori with Hypericum ruwenzoriense, Hagenia abyssinica and Rapanea rhododendroides; and a low and grassy understorey layer; 4): afro- alpine groves of Senecio stanleyi with giant Lobelia wollastonii in clearings; 5): sparse vegetation above 4,300 m mainly of lichens and spermatophytes, although grasses have been found growing over 5,000 m.

Fauna

Before the civil war some of the largest wild animal concentrations in Africa lived in the grasslands along the rivers of the park. There were some 200 species of mammals in the park, 23 of them threatened. The savannas support elephant Loxodonta africana (E) in the southern plains (3,000 in 1960, 674 in 1971, 500 in 1988) and at least 486 in 1998, hippopotamus Hippopotamus amphibius (33,000 in 1986, 3,000 in 1996, essentially decimated by late 1996), buffalo Syncerus caffer (LR), numerous antelope including kob Kobus kob thomasi (LR) and Defassa waterbuck K.defassa (LR), warthog Phacochoerus aethiopicus, various monkeys, and leopards Panthera pardus are widespread though few and little seen, but lions Panthera leo (VU) may have increased in numbers.

Mountain gorillas Gorilla g. beringei live on the slopes of the Virungas. Out of a total mountain gorilla population of 630 animals, about 140 were recorded there in 1980 and 279 in 1986. But between 1989 and 2001 their numbers increased from 320 to 355 owing to efficient patrolling. Eastern lowland gorillas Gorilla g. graueri live on Mount Tshiaberimu northwest of the lake and in the Semliki valley forests, threatened by illegal farmers and tree fellers. Other uncommon animals are an isolated population of 30-40 chimpanzees Pan troglodytes schweinfurthi (E) in the southern lava field forest of Tongo, and in the north, a small relict population of okapi Okapia johnstoni (LR), topi Damaliscus korrigum (LR), forest hog Hylochoerus meinertzhageni and bongo Tragelaphus euryceros (LR); also three species of pangolin Manis spp.and the aardvark Orycteropus afer.

Avifauna is very diverse: over 800 species are claimed, 24 being endemic to the Virungas. The wetlands include herons, ibisis, egrets, bitterns, duck, geese, darters, cormorants, skimmers, shoebills, openbills, ospreys, gulls, francolins, warblers and weavers and there are large numbers of pelicans on the lower Rutshuru river. The papyrus yellow warbler Chloropeta gracilirostris (VU) may exist in the far north. Rare birds in the volcanic highlands are Grauer's swamp warbler Bradypterus graueri (VU) in highland swamps, and Rockefellers sunbird Nectarinia rockefelleri (VU) in bamboo, forest and heath stream thickets; in the Ruwenzori mountain forests, Shelley's crimsonwing Cryptospiza shelleyi and Stuhlmann's doublecollared sunbird Nectarinia stuhlmanni in the bamboo and alpine zones. Notable mountain forest birds are the Rwenzori turaco, Musophaga johnstoni and the handsome francolin, Francolinus nobilis; also the forest ground thrush Turdus oberlaenderi and the shoebill Balaeniceps rex.

Lake Rutanzige which is shallow, has an impoverished fish fauna, but many cichlid species, and quite a rich invertebrate fauna. Recently crocodiles Crocodilus niloticus have returned to the upper Semliki river. The monitor lizard Varanus niloticus and snakes are common including python Python sebae, puff adder Bitis arietans, blacknecked cobra Naja nigricollis, and green mamba Dendroaspis jamesoni.

credited to eoearth and flickr: John & Mel Kots