Garamba National Park

The park's immense savannahs, grasslands and woodlands, interspersed with gallery forests along the river banks and the swampy depressions, are home to four large mammals: the elephant, giraffe, hippopotamus and above all the white rhinoceros. Though much larger than the black rhino, it is harmless; only some 30 individuals remain.

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Garamba National Park aims to protect the world's last known wild population of the critically endangered northern white rhinoceros. It comprises an area of savannah, marshland and forests in the far northeast of the DR of Congo, on the border with South Sudan.

The park was established in 1938, making it one of Africa's oldest national parks. It covers 492,000 ha. At an altitude of 700-1,000 m, Garamba is much flatter and has a different vegetation than the more mountaineous other Congolese WHS.

Since inscription in 1980, the park has been declared ‘In Danger’ twice. The northern white rhino population dwindled as a result of poaching from 1,000 in 1960 to 21 at the moment of WH inscription. It suffered further from 1996 on, due to the influx of South Sudanese refugees and rebels. In 2005 there were only four remaining northern white rhinos in Garamba National Park. However, they have not been seen since 2006 and it is feared they have been killed and the species has become extinct in the wild.

Other large mammals that inhabit the park include the hippopotamus, elephant, lion, leopard, chimpanzee and giraffe. The park’s elephant population has dropped significantly too, from 20,000 in the 1960s to 1,700 in 2014. 

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Salonga National Park

Salonga National Park is Africa's largest tropical rainforest reserve. Situated at the heart of the central basin of the Congo river, the park is very isolated and accessible only by water. It is the habitat of many endemic endangered species, such as the dwarf chimpanzee, the Congo peacock, the forest elephant and the African slender-snouted or 'false' crocodile.

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Salonga National Park is Africa's biggest tropical rainforest reserve. It consists of two locations: a northern and a southern sector, separated by a 40km wide settlement zone.

It is a very isolated park, located at the central basin of the Congo river and crossected by many rivers. The park can only be reached via water transport, and in parts is considered to be completely virgin and never accessed by man. It covers an area of 3,656,000 ha.

The park is also home to many endangered fauna species notably the bonobo. Thebonobo or pygmy chimpanzee is only found in the wild here and in surrounding reserves. The bonobo diverges about 0.4 % from the common chimpanzee genome. It is possible that the formation of the Congo river led to the speciation of this particular chimpanzee species (they're not great swimmers). They're now an endangered species, with 29,500 - 50,000 individuals left. 

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Virunga National Park

Virunga National Park (covering an area of 790,000 ha) comprises an outstanding diversity of habitats, ranging from swamps and steppes to the snowfields of Rwenzori at an altitude of over 5,000 m, and from lava plains to the savannahs on the slopes of volcanoes. Mountain gorillas are found in the park, some 20,000 hippopotamuses live in the rivers and birds from Siberia spend the winter there.

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Virunga National Park covers an area of 7 active volcanoes with a high diversity in plants and animals. Vulnerable or endangered species that live here include the hippopotamus, the mountain gorilla, the lowland gorilla and the eastern chimpanzee.

Covering 7,800 km2 , the Virunga National Park lies in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, bordering Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and Rwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda. It was established in 1925 as Africa's first national park (then called Albert National Park), in order to protect the mountain gorillas. From the mid-1980s poaching and the Congo Civil War have seriously damaged the park’s forests and its wildlife population. The site has been In Danger since 1994. Since then 130 park rangers have been killed in the line of duty.

Varying in altitude from 680 m to 5,109 m, Virunga has a wide range of habitats: from savannah and marshlands to permanent glaciers and snow. It covers the western shores of Lake Edward, known for its 20,000 hippopotamuses. The Ruwenzori Mountains lie on the Ugandan border and rise to alpine meadows and a glacier, while Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira are the most active African volcanoes with substantial associated lava plains. 

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Kahuzi-Biega National Park

A vast area of primary tropical forest dominated by two spectacular extinct volcanoes, Kahuzi and Biega, the park has a diverse and abundant fauna. One of the last groups of eastern lowland (graueri) gorillas (consisting of only some 250 individuals) lives at between 2,100 and 2,400 m above sea-level.

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Kahuzi-Biéga National Park encompasses a montane and a lowland area, covered by primary tropical forest that is one of the last refuges of the endangered Eastern Lowland Gorilla. The Eastern Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri) is the largest subspecies of the Gorilla and the largest living primate. They are predominantly herbivorous, eating mostly leaves. They tend to be sociable and very peaceful, living in groups of 5 to 30.

A status report on the park provided by the DR of Congo in 2008 mentions 125 gorillas still living in the mountains, and 31 in the lowlands. They are threatend by the high population density, mining and the presence of Rwandan Interahamwe.

Prior to the conflicts in Congo and Rwanda of the 1990's, an estimated 600 gorillas remained throughout the range. The ongoing fighting in the Congo has moved within the boundaries of the park causing looting, burning of the forest, and poaching of the animals. Consequently the park was added to the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger in 1997.

The park is located in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, near to the western side of Lake Kivu and the Rwandan border. It is named after two extinct volcanoes, Mount Kahuzi and Mount Biéga. Other primates in the park include eastern chimpanzee, elephant, forest hog, antelope, giant gennet, Aquatic civet, Maclaud's horseshoe bat, Ruwenzori least otter shrew, owl-faced monkey, eastern needle-clawed galago, Thomas' tree squirrel and Alexander's bush squirrel. 

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Okapi Wildlife Reserve

The Okapi Wildlife Reserve occupies about one-fifth of the Ituri forest in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Congo river basin, of which the reserve and forest are a part, is one of the largest drainage systems in Africa. The reserve contains threatened species of primates and birds and about 5,000 of the estimated 30,000 okapi surviving in the wild. It also has some dramatic scenery, including waterfalls on the Ituri and Epulu rivers. The reserve is inhabited by traditional nomadic pygmy Mbuti and Efe hunters.

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The Okapi Wildlife Reserve is home to about 5,000 of the estimated 30,000 okapi surviving in the wild. The Reserve, created in 1992, is located in the north-east of the DR of Congo. 

This Wildlife Reserve is part of the Ituri rainforest. The reserve also contains other many endemic and threatened species of primates and birds. It shares the same geographical region and many features with two other WHS, Dja Faunal Reserve andSalonga National Park.

Some 4,000 people live inside the reserve, mostly Mbuti pygmies. 

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