The Kahuzi-Biega National Park is a
protected area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
near
Bukavu
Bukavu is a city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), lying at the extreme south-western edge of Lake Kivu, west of Cyangugu in Rwanda, and separated from it by the outlet of the Ruzizi River. It is the capital of the South Kivu pr ...
town in eastern
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
. It is situated near the western bank of
Lake Kivu
Lake Kivu is one of the African Great Lakes. It lies on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, and is in the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift. Lake Kivu empties into the Ruzizi River, which ...
and the
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
n border. Established in 1970 by the Belgian photographer and conservationist
Adrien Deschryver, the park is named after two dormant volcanoes,
Mount Kahuzi
Mount Kahuzi is an extinct volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
It is within the Kahuzi-Biéga National Park, a World Heritage Site.
Location
Mount Kahuzi was last active at the end of the Pleistocene.
At it is the highest peak in th ...
and
Mount Biega, which are within its limits. With an area of , Kahuzi-Biega is one of the biggest
national park
A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
s in the country. Set in both mountainous and lowland terrain, it is one of the last refuges of the rare species of
Eastern lowland gorilla
The eastern lowland gorilla (''Gorilla beringei graueri'') or Grauer's gorilla is a Critically Endangered subspecies of eastern gorilla endemic to the mountainous forests of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Important populations of t ...
(''Gorilla beringei graueri''), an endangered category under the
IUCN Red List
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...
. The park is a
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
, inscribed in 1980 for its unique biodiversity of rainforest habitat and its eastern lowland gorillas. In 1997, it was listed on the
List of World Heritage in Danger
The List of World Heritage in Danger is compiled by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) through the World Heritage Committee according to Article 11.4 of the World Heritage Convention,Full title: ''Conv ...
because of the political instability of the region, an influx of refugees, and increasing wildlife exploitation.
Geography
The park lies west of the Bukavu town in
South Kivu Province
South Kivu (''Jimbo la Kivu Kusini'' in Swahili), (french: Sud-Kivu) is one of 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Its capital is Bukavu.
History
South Kivu Province was created from Sud-Kivu District in 1989, when the exi ...
, covering an area of . A small part of the park is in
Mitumba Mountain range of the
Albertine Rift
The Albertine Rift is the western branch of the East African Rift, covering parts of Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania.
It extends from the northern end of Lake Albert to the southern end of Lake Tan ...
in the
Great Rift Valley
The Great Rift Valley is a series of contiguous geographic trenches, approximately in total length, that runs from Lebanon in Asia to Mozambique in Southeast Africa. While the name continues in some usages, it is rarely used in geology as it i ...
, and the larger part is in lowland terrain.
A corridor of width joins the mountainous and lowland terrain. The eastern part of the park is the smaller mountainous region measuring ; the larger part measures and consists mainly of lowland stretching from
Bukavu
Bukavu is a city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), lying at the extreme south-western edge of Lake Kivu, west of Cyangugu in Rwanda, and separated from it by the outlet of the Ruzizi River. It is the capital of the South Kivu pr ...
to
Kisangani
Kisangani (formerly Stanleyville or Stanleystad) is the capital of Tshopo province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the fifth most populous urban area in the country, with an estimated population of 1,312,000 in 2021, and the larg ...
, drained by the
Luka
Luka may refer to:
People
* Luka (given name), a South Slavic masculine given name cognate of Luke, and a Japanese given name
* Luka (singer), stage name of Brazilian singer and songwriter Luciana Karina Santos de Lima (born 1979)
* Luka Keʻelik ...
and
Lugulu
Lugulu is a settlement in Busia County, Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates ...
rivers which flow into the
Lualaba River
The Lualaba River flows entirely within the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It provides the greatest streamflow to the Congo River, while the source of the Congo is recognized as the Chambeshi. The Lualaba is long. Its headwaters are in ...
.
[ Two dormant volcanoes are set within the park's limits and lend their names to it: ]Kahuzi
Mount Kahuzi is an extinct volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
It is within the Kahuzi-Biéga National Park, a World Heritage Site.
Location
Mount Kahuzi was last active at the end of the Pleistocene.
At it is the highest peak in th ...
() and Biéga ().
The park receives an average annual precipitation of . The maximum temperature recorded in the area is while the minimum is .
Legal status
The earliest reserve, Zoological and Forest Reserve of Mount Kahuzi, was created on 27 July 1937 by the then Governor General of the Belgian Colonial administration. That reserve has been part of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park since November 1970. Five years later, the park was extended to cover 6000 km2. The park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980,[ under Criterion (x) for its unique habitat of rainforest and diversity of the mammal species, particularly the eastern lowland gorillas, '']Gorilla beringei graueri
The eastern lowland gorilla (''Gorilla beringei graueri'') or Grauer's gorilla is a Critically Endangered subspecies of eastern gorilla endemic to the mountainous forests of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Important populations of t ...
''.[
]
Biodiversity
The park has a rich diversity of flora and fauna. As of a survey conducted in 2003 by the Wildlife Conservation Society
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a non-governmental organization headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, that aims to conserve the world's largest wild places in 14 priority regions. Founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological ...
, it protects roughly 349 species of birds and 136 species of mammals.[ Over 1,178 plant species have been observed in the highland regions of the park alone.][ Because of its varied topography and habitat types, Kahuzi-Biega National Park is also a hotspot of plants and vertebrate ]endemism
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
for.[
]
Flora
The park's swamps, bogs, marshland and riparian forest
A riparian forest or riparian woodland is a forested or wooded area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal, sink or reservoir.
Etymology
The term riparian comes from the Latin word '' ...
s on hydromorphic ground at all altitudes are rare worldwide. The western lowland sector of the park is dominated by dense Guineo-Congolian wet equatorial rainforest, part of the Northeastern Congolian lowland forests
The Northeastern Congolian lowland forests is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion that spans the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic.
Geography
The Northeastern Congolian lowland forests lie in the northeast ...
ecoregion,["Kahuzi-Biega National Park". DOPA Explorer. Accessed 22 March 2022]
/ref> with an area of transition forest between and . The eastern mountainous sector includes continuous forest vegetation from to over , and is one of the rare sites in Sub-Saharan Africa which demonstrates all stages of the low to highland transition, including six distinguishable primary vegetation types: swamp and peat bog
A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...
, swamp forest
Freshwater swamp forests, or flooded forests, are forests which are inundated with freshwater, either permanently or seasonally. They normally occur along the lower reaches of rivers and around freshwater lakes. Freshwater swamp forests are found ...
, high-altitude rainforest, mountain rainforest, bamboo forest
Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin ...
and subalpine
Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...
heather.[ The montane rain forests are part of the ]Albertine Rift montane forests
The Albertine Rift montane forests is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion in east-central Africa. The ecoregion covers the mountains of the northern Albertine Rift, and is home to distinct Afromontane forests with high biodiversity.
Geo ...
ecoregion.[ Mountain and swamp forest grows between and , bamboo forest grows between and , and the summits of Mounts Kahuzi and Biéga above have subalpine heather, dry savannah, and grasslands, as well as the endemic plant '' Senecio kahuzicus''.][
]
Fauna
The national park protects a greater diversity of mammal species than any other national park in the Albertine Rift
The Albertine Rift is the western branch of the East African Rift, covering parts of Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania.
It extends from the northern end of Lake Albert to the southern end of Lake Tan ...
.[Wildlife Conservation Society
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a non-governmental organization headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, that aims to conserve the world's largest wild places in 14 priority regions. Founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological ...]
in April 2011, at least 181 gorillas were recorded in the park.
. Some of the mammals include the bush elephant, bush buffalo,
.