Congo (Democratic Republic)

Virunga National Park

WHS Score 3.99 Votes 10 Average 4.6

Virunga National Park covers a spectacular montane landscape with seven active volcanoes and a high diversity of plants and animals.

Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira are the most active African volcanoes with substantial associated lava plains and a lava lake. The park, which holds a wide range of habitats, is home to mammal species such as the hippopotamus, the mountain gorilla, the lowland gorilla, and the eastern chimpanzee. Virunga - then called Albert National Park - was established in 1925 as Africa's first national park, in order to protect the mountain gorillas.

Community Perspective: the park is well-geared to receive tourists when the DRC’s security situation allows it. Michael en Els both visited from the Rwanda border and met the habituated gorillas.

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Site Info

Official Information
Full Name
Virunga National Park (ID: 63)
Country
Congo (Democratic Republic)
Status
Inscribed 1979 Site history
History of Virunga National Park
WHS Type
Natural
Criteria
  • vii
  • viii
  • x
Links
UNESCO
whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
Forum Discussion
Related Resources
News Article
  • April 9, 2025 reuters.com — Anthrax kills 50 hippos in Congo's Virunga National Park
  • May 29, 2023 aljazeera.com — Two rangers shot dead in DR Congo’s Virunga park
  • Jan. 24, 2023 edition.cnn.com — Africa's oldest national park has lost 500 acres of trees in 2 months due to refugees.
  • July 28, 2022 theguardian.com — DRC to auction oil and gas permits in endangered gorilla habitat
  • May 23, 2021 bbc.com — Mount Nyiragongo: DR Congo plans to evacuate city as volcano erupts
  • Jan. 10, 2021 france24.com — At least six DR Congo park rangers killed in attack
  • June 27, 2020 whc.unesco.org — UNESCO condemns new armed attack on Virunga National Park
  • April 25, 2020 aljazeera.com — Rangers, civilians killed in attack in Virunga National Park
  • June 16, 2018 nytimes.com — After Violence, Congo’s Virunga National Park Closes for the Year
  • May 11, 2018 edition.cnn.com — Two Britons kidnapped in Virunga National Park
  • May 5, 2018 independent.co.uk — Democratic Republic of Congo plans to allow oil exploration in national parks home to endangered mountain gorillas
  • April 9, 2018 timeslive.co.za — Six park rangers killed in DRC's Virunga wildlife sanctuary
  • Aug. 17, 2017 theguardian.com — Three wildlife rangers killed in attack by violent militia in DRC
  • Dec. 17, 2016 news.nationalgeographic.com — Another Ranger Killed Protecting World's Most Dangerous Park
  • March 17, 2016 whc.unesco.org — Four checkpoints in the central sector of the Virunga National Park were attacked by rebel groups, 2 guards killed
  • Dec. 4, 2015 edition.cnn.com — Can clean energy save the gorillas of Virunga National Park?
  • Nov. 8, 2015 3news.co.nz — Oil found under Congo wildlife park
  • Oct. 31, 2015 npr.org — Congolese Activists Honored for Fighting Oil Exploration in Virunga National Park
  • Aug. 19, 2015 radiookapi.net — Oil exploitation by Uganda in Lake Edward may pollute Virunga Park
  • June 14, 2014 un.org — Oil firm halts exploration in Virunga NP
  • April 17, 2014 un.org — Attack against the chief warden of Virunga National Park
  • Feb. 15, 2014 wwf.org.uk — UK Government set to examine Soco's activities in Virunga National Park
  • May 20, 2013 wwf.org.uk — Total won't drill for oil in Virunga
  • Sept. 24, 2012 rapidcityjournal.com — Congo allows firm to hunt for oil in Virunga park
  • May 22, 2012 huffingtonpost.com — Intense fighting between rebel factions and the Congolese army spread to Virunga Park this week
  • May 14, 2012 wwf.panda.org — WWF to Total: Virunga "is in your hands"
  • Nov. 14, 2011 washingtonpost.com — Virunga National Park is inviting tourists on an overnight trek to a spectacular eruption of Mount Nyamulagira in eastern Congo
  • March 18, 2011 afrol.com — Congo halts oil exploration in Virunga Park
  • March 9, 2010 news24.com — DRC troops killed seven hippopotamuses, four elephants and six monkeys, including two chimpanzees, last month at Virunga
  • Jan. 3, 2010 news.bbc.co.uk — DR Congo volcano eruption threatens rare chimpanzees
  • Dec. 5, 2009 blogs.nationalgeographic.com — Orphaned gorillas returned to Virunga
  • Nov. 22, 2008 google.com — Rangers return to protect Congo mountain gorillas at Virunga park
  • Nov. 1, 2008 afriquenligne.fr — Virunga affected by North Kivu violence
  • March 28, 2008 news.nationalgeographic.com — Congolese authorities have arrested a senior park official in connection to the recent execution-style killings of several mountain gorillas
  • Aug. 23, 2007 africa.reuters.com — Fifth rare gorilla found dead after Congo attack
  • Aug. 23, 2007 allafrica.com — Rwanda: Gorilla Killings Fuelled By Charcoal Trade
  • July 28, 2007 whc.unesco.org — The death toll continues to rise in Virunga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo), where three females and one male silverback gorilla were shot and killed in the southern sector of the Park during the night of 22 July.

Community Information

  • Community Category
  • Wildlife habitat: Fauna
  • Natural landscape: Mountain
Travel Information
No travel information
Recent Connections
View all (45) .
Connections of Virunga National Park
Individual People
  • Leakey Family
    Louise Leakey is married to Emmanuel de Merode, director of the Virunga National Park
Geography
Trivia
Ecology
Damaged
  • Rangers killed by poachers

    See news.nationalgeographic.com

  • Threatened by Oil and Gas Exploration
    "Most of Virunga National Park is covered by 3 oil prospection blocks (Blocks III, IV, and V).... The World Heritage Committee has repeatedly expressed its concern regarding the existance of oil concessions in Virunga National Park and requested the DRC government to not issue any more exploration permits for Virunga NP." (IUCN Outlook 2020)
  • Poaching
    Elephant, hippopotamus, buffalo and other plains ungulates are seriously threatened by commercial poaching in the plains to supply bushmeat markets in neighbouring cities and towns. Commercial poaching of forest species elsewhere in the park threatens the survival of endangered and/or endemic species (e.g. chimpanzee, l’Hoest’s monkey, okapi, and Ruwenzori duiker). Poaching of mountain gorillas in the Southern Sector is an ever present threat although there have been no new cases of direct killing of mountain gorillas since the killing of 10 individuals in 2007.
  • Damaged in War since WWII
    "Great Lakes Conflicts" - Rwandan Genocide (1994) First and Second Congo Wars (1995-6 and 1998-2003), Kivu Conflict (2004-10). Mines, Poaching, Illegal wood cutting/charcoal burning, squatting. "The forests of Virunga NP, home to the endangered mountain gorilla, were badly damaged by the demands for firewood and charcoal made by the refugees. Two years after the arrival of the refugees 105 km2 of the park's forest had been affected, of which 63 km2 had been razed." (Wiki).

    See www.endangeredspecieshandbook.org

World Heritage Process
Human Activity
  • Indigenous groups expelled
    The protected area was extended in 1929 by Virunga National Park, which encompassed the Virunga Mountains, parts of the Rutshuru Territory and the plains south of Lake Edward. Its initial size of 2,920.98 km2 (1,127.80 sq mi) was enlarged step by step in subsequent years.Indigenous people, foremost Hutus and Tutsis lost their traditional land rights in this process, and were evicted from the protected area.(wiki)
  • Pygmy Peoples
    Around 1250 Batwa pygmies are illegally camped within Virunga park

    See gorillacd.org

WHS on Other Lists
Timeline
  • Early Pleistocene
    The current course of the Congo River formed 1.5-2 million years BP, during the Pleistocene (Wiki), Albertine Rift system from "Late Pliocene (~ 3Ma) to Early Pleistocene (~ 2 Ma (Final emergence of the Eastern Mountain Gorilla seems to have been late Pleistocene)
Visiting conditions
WHS Names
  • Named after a Mountain
    "The Virunga Mountains (also known as Mufumbiro) are a chain of volcanoes in East Africa, along the northern border of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Uganda."

    See en.wikipedia.org

18
News
reuters.com 04/09/2025
Anthrax kills 50 hippos in Congo's…
aljazeera.com 05/29/2023
Two rangers shot dead in DR Congo’…
edition.cnn.com 01/24/2023
Africa's oldest national park has …
Recent Visitors
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Community Reviews

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First published: 14/10/19.

Michael Novins

Virunga National Park

Virunga National Park (Inscribed)

Virunga National Park by Michael Novins

In September 2019, I took a bus from Kigali to Gisenyi on Lake Kivu, where I spent the night at the Lake Kivu Serena Hotel, and in the morning crossed into the DRC at the Grande Barriere border crossing. I met up with the team from Virunga NP, who have an office in the same building as DRC passport control, and made the hourlong drive to Kibumba Tented Camp in Virunga NP. The next morning, we climbed up the slippery slopes of Mount Mikeno, a dormant volcano in Virunga National Park, and after two hours met up with a group of 44 habituated mountain gorillas. We left them after an hour, all that visitors are permitted to spend with the great apes.

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First published: 31/12/15.

Els Slots

Virunga National Park

Virunga National Park (Inscribed)

Virunga National Park by Els Slots

From the moment that I became aware that it’s feasible at the moment to cross the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo and visit Virunga National Park, I simply had to do it. I booked myself into the comfortable Mikeno Lodge, arranged transport from Kigali in Rwanda to the Congolese border, and signed up for a gorilla trek in the park. This is one of the earliest WHS (1979) and it has been praised in superlatives for its montane landscape, volcanism, and biodiversity. The site is also one of the 50 remaining WHS that are still unreviewed on this website.

The park has been faced with “an almost uninterrupted series of trials” since the mid-1980s, ranging from the influx of one million Rwandan refugees in its vicinity to the oil exploration by SOCO. The latter is the subject of the acclaimed but rather unsettling documentary Virunga (2014), which I watched on Netflix a week before I headed out there. “Congo is safe now”, my Rwandese driver said while we were passing empty refugee camps near the border.

One of the first remarkable things upon arrival I found was that the park entrance lies in a quite densely populated area, and next to the main road that goes north. The road is in a terrible state, consisting of nothing but old to very old lava and potholes. It is used however by trucks (even oil transporters), buses and moto-taxis that bump from left to right. Everywhere there are …

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