Virunga National Park Research Articles

Land Cover Dynamics in the Northwestern Virunga Landscape: An Analysis of the Past Two Decades in a Dynamic Economic and Security Context

The Beni region in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is grappling with socioeconomic development and security challenges that have affected its natural ecosystems, especially those located in the northern Virunga National Park. This study aims to document the anthropization of the northwestern Virunga landscape from 1995 to 2021 in the context of insecurity. Using a cartographic approach and ecological-landscape-analysis tools, this study delves into the overall landscape changes through a comparative analysis of protected and unprotected areas. These investigations focus on landscape composition, transitions between land-cover classes, and the spatial transformation process. The northwestern Virunga landscape is undergoing significant land cover changes due to the influence of insecurity on socioeconomic activities, primarily agriculture. Agricultural land encompasses a larger area than other land-cover types. However, its expansion has decelerated since the 2000s. The loss of forested area is discontinuous. During relatively stable periods (1995–2005), forests exhibited a reduction of up to 2.90% in area, while in the period of the return of Iturian refugees to their province, followed by terrorist insecurity in Beni (2005–2021), the forested area increased by 2.07%. Savannah areas, which are mainly located in the graben rift valley and near Butembo, have been more heavily affected by human activity than forests. Ultimately, the apparent stability of the landscape can be attributed to its protected areas, especially Virunga National Park.

Applying best practice to feasibility assessment and strategic planning for great ape translocation: A case study of Grauer's gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri)

We outline the feasibility and risk assessments that are essential prerequisites to conservation translocation of great apes, while upholding the precautionary principle to avoid harms to conspecifics, sympatric taxa and ecosystems. As part of a strategic planning process, we addressed key questions on the costs and benefits of a translocation of Grauer's gorillas in Democratic Republic of Congo. We reviewed published and gray literature to compile data on Grauer's gorilla ecology and potential release sites in the subspecies' geographic range. Taking into account ecological dimensions of the habitats, impacts on conspecifics, sympatric great apes and other wildlife, and existing threats, we formulated recommendations on whether and where translocation could benefit conservation of this taxon. We concluded that one site assessed is compatible with key IUCN criteria. At Mt. Tshiaberimu in Virunga National Park, the resident Grauer's gorilla population is non-viable, no sympatric great ape species is present and the site is actively protected against poaching and habitat encroachment. Conservation translocations are widely used for species recovery; however, detailed accounts of the analyses and planning required to adhere to IUCN best practice are rare. Our approach enabled evidence-based determination of feasibility despite some initial information gaps. The process is widely applicable and could encourage improved compliance with IUCN guidelines when risks to wild conspecifics might be high, yet ecological knowledge of the target population is limited. The Grauer's Gorilla Conservation and Reinforcement Project is a partnership between the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center, Virunga National Park and Re:wild.

Impacts of Armed Conflicts on Tourism in Protected Areas and Their Environment in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Armed conflicts have been on the rise in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It harms the country’s destination image with respect to tourism. Evidence demonstrates that violence have a negative effect on demand for tourism. It is also documented that countries suffering from armed conflicts severely impair their economies since human life is frequently lost and growth is threatened. This research was undertaken in and around Virunga National Park and assessed the effects of armed conflicts on tourism activities. The target populations were local residents and key informants drawn from organizations operating in and around the park with a sample size of 255 respondents. This constituted 200 local residents who participated in the questionnaire survey, 40 who participated in focus group discussions, and 15 key informants. Stratified, Systematic, purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select respondents. Structured questionnaires, interview schedules, observations and focus group discussions were used to collect data. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test goodness of fit with aid of SPSS. Results using graphs and tables showed areas mostly affected by armed conflicts were eco-tourism (97.9%), Cultural tourism (1%), Wildlife based tourism (0.5%) and Agro-tourism at 0.6%. While the most affected tourism activity was Gorilla trekking at 92.7%, accommodation and ascension of Nyiragogo. Conflicts decreased tourist arrivals and tourism activities in and around the park (X2=330.0,df=4,p˂0.0001). Recommendation was to reduce the conflicts further and remove the armed groups then reduce their impacts on tourism activities in addition effective implementation of laws ensuring equality on utilization of the resources and restriction of movements in and around the park.

Verbal Autopsy and Outbreak Investigation of Anthrax in Livestock and Wildlife at the Virunga National Park Interface Area, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Verbal Autopsy and Outbreak Investigation of Anthrax in Livestock and Wildlife at the Virunga National Park Interface Area, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Assessment of Land Use and Land Cover Changes (LULC) in the North Talihya River Watershed (Lubero Territory, Eastern DR Congo)

On the Equator, the Talihya North watershed is a vast area of nearly 581.7 km2 that extends from the Cool Highlands on the Congo-Nile Crest in Lubero Territory to the Rift Valley in the Virunga National Park in Beni Territory. This vast territory has an agropastoral vocation. Indeed, agricultural activities combined with the high population density in this watershed generate modifications in the landscape structure. The objective of this paper is to study the dynamics of land use from 1987 to 2020. To achieve this, two Landsat TM+ and ETM+ images and one Sentinel-2 image were analyzed. After the classification of the images based on the Maximum Likelihood algorithm, this study shows that two processes are evident in the landscape of the North Talihya watershed: deforestation and savannization. Forests that occupied 253.11 km2 in 1987 have decreased to 201.12 km2 in 2001 and to 123.04 km2 in 2020. These area balances indicate that the natural forest formations in the North Talihya watershed have been converted primarily to croplands and fallows. The estimated annual deforestation rate between 1987 and 2020 is 2.18%. With this high rate of deforestation, mechanisms to restore degraded forest ecosystems in this watershed will need to be put in place. The sustainable management of residual forest ecosystems that have escaped human pressure is necessary for the conservation of biodiversity for future generations.

Participatory Approach for the Integrated and Sustainable Management of the PNVi

This study proposes an Analysis on the participatory management of Virunga National Park using SWOT analysis. We started from the constant incomprehension and perpetual opposition of the local population on the management of the PNVi. The question asked is to know the management strategy aimed at involving all the actors in the sustainable management of the Virunga National Park. After having presented and analyzed the data of our sample which were provided to us by 3 territories and a city including 12% in the territory of Nyiragongo, 15% in the city of Goma, 22% in the territory of Masisi and 51% in the territory of Rutshuru the size of the sample to be considered in relation to the strategies for involving the population in the sustainable management of the PNVi. The results showed that the best way to generate the PNVi would be the integrated management model, at least 42% of study participants proposed it, 31% proposed the multi-agent model, 20% proposed the traditional model policeman and 7% suggested private management.

Eco-war tourism: Affective geographies, colonial durabilities and the militarization of conservation

This article introduces ‘eco-war tourism’, a growing niche in which tourists venture into war zones to seek adventure and ‘save’ nature from its violent surroundings. In Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, such tourists can experience the ‘threat of mortality’ while visiting mountain gorillas, contribute to the survival of the park and supposedly participate in regional peacebuilding. This article considers how the amalgamated commodification of war and gorillas leads to the bunkerization of tourism, the reconfiguration of space into ‘safe’ and ‘dangerous’ areas and the militarization of conservation. It links critical security studies and political ecology to theorize how eco-war tourism intensifies green militarization and how militarized conservation itself becomes a spectacularized tourist attraction. Eco-war tourism is informed by, and productive of, various affective geographies, entrenched in colonial durabilities that produce Eurocentric ideas about how and by whom nature should be protected. I call for critical security studies to examine how diverse security interventions – e.g. military, tourism, humanitarianism and conservation – are entangled in and reconfigure inherently political nature–society relations and underscore the futility of approaching ‘society’ and ‘the environment’ as separate fields of security.

Growth, Productivity, Biomass and Carbon Stock in Eucalyptus saligna and Grevillea robusta Plantations in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Initiated by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) more than a decade ago in North Kivu, single-species plantations of Eucalyptus saligna and Grevillea robusta constitute, with other village plantations, the current legal source of wood-energy for the communities bordering the Virunga National Park (PNVi). This study assesses the growth and productivity of these plantations in two sites with different soil and climatic conditions to predict their production over time. The study also assesses the carbon stock and long-term CO2 fixation in the biomass of the studied plantations to deduce their contribution to climate change mitigation. Non-destructive inventories were carried out during three consecutive years in 20 E. saligna and 12 G. robusta plantations in Sake and Kirumba. Analysis of the data revealed that both species have similar diametric growth while height growth and productivity were significantly higher in the E. saligna plantations. The productivity of E. saligna was also higher in Kirumba than in Sake, while that of G. robusta was higher in Sake than in Kirumba. The differences observed were mainly related to species, silviculture, altitude and concentration of bioavailable elements in the soils. The analysis of productivity evolution over time allowed us to determine optimal rotations at 8 and 12 years, respectively, for E. saligna and G. robusta plantations. The relationships between biomass or carbon stock and tree diameter were not different between the studied species but were significantly different at the stand level. If silviculture was standardized and plantations carefully monitored, carbon stock and long-term CO2 fixation would be higher in G. robusta plantations than in E. saligna plantations. These results indicate that while for productivity reasons E. saligna is the favoured species in wood-energy plantations to quickly meet the demand of the growing and disadvantaged population living in the vicinity of PNVi, carefully monitored G. robusta plantations could be more interesting in terms of carbon credits. To simultaneously optimise wood-energy production and carbon storage in the plantations initiated in North Kivu, E. saligna and G. robusta should be planted in mixture. In addition, species and site characteristics adapted silvicultural management practices must be applied to these plantations, which are very important for the region, its population and its park. Finally, the economic profitability as well as the sustainability of the plantations should be assessed in the longer term in North Kivu.

Navigating fearscapes: women’s coping strategies with(in) the conservation-conflict nexus in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

The gendered impact of fear from persistent insecurities informs women’s navigation within and through conflict- and conservation-shaped landscapes. This article introduces a feminist emotional geography approach into discussions concerning the relationship between conservation and conflict studies to explore how navigation of fear enables women’s self-determination and agency in generating survival strategies with(in) such ‘violent environments’. Based on visual ethnographic methods employed around Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the photo diaries and narratives of two women illustrate their attempts to make sense of their fears in order to develop emotional and behavioral coping responses in the form of bartering and performativity. Going beyond a dominant focus on ‘everyday resistance’ against oppressive conservation practices and other armed actors in conflict, I argue that this fear-induced coping allows to account for the compliances and collaborations unfolding with landscape and actors, that afford the women a sense of integrity, agency and ownership of their body and mind.

Capital and Control: Neocolonialism Through the Militarization of African Wildlife Conservation

Biodiversity loss is occurring at catastrophic rates worldwide. In sub-Saharan Africa, wildlife conservation efforts have centred around creating and managing protected areas. However, contemporary African states and their environmental policies are inseparable from the legacies of their former colonial powers, who sponsored the creation and continued management of protected areas to best serve their interests. By reviewing existing literature and a case study on the colonial history of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this paper examines how African wildlife has been accumulated as capital belonging to the nation-state, legitimizing the use of military force against perceived threats. Through this framing, former colonial powers have funded and sponsored militarized conservation in Africa, effectively retaining control over the narratives and management of the continent’s natural resources in the postcolonial period.

Lakes as Rebellious Landscapes: From ‘Fishing Rebels’ to ‘Fishy State Officials’ in DR Congo

Lakes are rarely considered to be political spaces in the literature on the inter-linkages between landscapes, authority, and armed conflict. Scholars mainly focussed on the role of mountains, forests, and mud fields, in war and resistance, and examine how a variety of state(-like) actors try to make these ‘unruly’ spaces legible. This article discusses the frictions that emerge when the management of Virunga National Park in eastern DR Congo tries to retake control of Lake Edward through infrastructural and military interventions. These interventions not only encounter resistance from multiple rebel groups that hold various fishing villages along the shores of Lake Edward, but also from other state authorities present in the area—‘fishing rebels’ and ‘fishy state officials’. Drawing on a longue durée perspective to understand contemporary contestations allows us to move beyond focussing on practices of illegal fishing in conflict areas and, instead, embed such issues within the broader historically shaped political and social landscapes of power. Park authorities aim to carve the lake into ‘enclaves’—to counter subversion and render fishing sustainable—neglecting the ways in which the lake is interconnected. This article argues that we should abandon the dichotomy of landscapes as either producing subversive politics/rebellion or as controlled by ‘the state’. Instead of approaching landscapes in conflict areas —in this case lakes— as ‘rebel landscapes’ they should be approached as ‘rebellious landscapes’, as they are controlled fluidly amongst different de facto authorities.

Virunga National Park: A possible governance model for Green Deal implementation in the Democratic Republic of Congo

With the ‘Green Deal’ the European Commission has committed to sustainable development not only within its borders but on a global level. Due to its rapid demographic growth and sustained economic growth, Africa will certainly have to be recognised as a main economic player in the future and, therefore, a partner to strongly support in this transition phase. But, despite this continent’s enormous potential and the willing declarations of intent by political leaders, the governance of many countries still show a series of weaknesses, while their development strategies often lack long-term vision. The paper analyses the possibility of identifying in the governance of DRC Virunga National Park a potential model for reliable partnerships in ‘green transition’ cooperation policies.

Subjective modeling choices and the robustness of impact evaluations in conservation science.

Arbitrary modeling choices are inevitable in scientific studies. Yet, few empirical studies in conservation science report the effects these arbitrary choices have on estimated results. I explored the effects of subjective modeling choices in the context of counterfactual impact evaluations. Over 5000 candidate models based on reasonable changes in the choice of statistical matching algorithms (e.g., genetic and nearest distance mahalanobis matching), the parametrization of these algorithms (e.g., number of matches), and the inclusion of specific covariates (e.g., distance to nearest city, slope, or rainfall) were valid for studying the effect of Virunga National Park in Democratic Republic of the Congo on changes in tree cover loss and carbon storage over time. I randomly picked 2000 of the 5000 candidate models to determine how much and which subjective modeling choices affected the results the most. All valid models indicated that tree cover loss decreased and carbon storage increased in Virunga National Park from 2000 to 2019. Nonetheless, the order of magnitude of the estimates varied by a factor of 3 (from -4.78 to -13.12 percentage points decrease in tree cover loss and from 20 to 46 t Ce/ha for carbon storage). My results highlight that modeling choices, notably the choice of the matching algorithm, can have significant effects on point estimates and suggest that more structured robustness checks are a key step toward more credible findings in conservation science.

Business in the Heart of Darkness: SOCO's Oil Exploration in the Virunga National Park

Roger Cagle, the co-founder and deputy CEO of SOCO International, watched the dreary London rain outside his office window one February morning in 2015. Never had SOCO, the oil-and-gas exploration and production player that ranked among Britain’s top 200 companies, experienced such a public backlash against its operations. For nearly 20 years, Cagle had helped steer his company’s projects around the world—often in volatile regions where others feared to tread, such as Vietnam, Russia, and Yemen—while delivering significant returns to investors. But the international uproar surrounding SOCO during the past year had been nothing short of mind-boggling.

In Danger

Abstract UNESCO condemns the deadly attack carried out on the morning of 10 January 2021 in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. Rangers on patrol within the park were ambushed near Kabuendo; six men were killed and one man was injured. UNESCO wishes to pay tribute to them and to express its sincere condolences to their families and colleagues.

Anthropization and Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Land use in Virunga National Park of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Anthropization and Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Land use in Virunga National Park of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Spatial and temporal dynamics of anthropogenic threats on the biodiversity of Virunga National Park

Spatial and temporal dynamics of anthropogenic threats on the biodiversity of Virunga National Park

Analysis of current Governance in the Sustainable Management of the Virunga National Park of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Analysis of current Governance in the Sustainable Management of the Virunga National Park of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Analysis of current Governance in the Sustainable Protection of the Virunga National Park

AI Publications is an open access peer review international journal to publish the article in the field of Agriculture, Horticulture, Food science, Rural Development, Environment and Health Research, Chemistry, Mathematics,Physics.

Voices of Justice in Non-Fiction Films and in Christianity.

Environmental degradation and one of its effects, global warming, have worsened the inequalities between the rich and the poor among people and nations. The Catholic Church has demonstrated its deep commitment to social justice visibly since the Vatican II, while the most recent Encyclical, Laudato Si1, offered by Pope Francis moves the Church in an unprecedented manner toward the coupling of sustainability and religion to address global inequalities.This paper features a few important dimensions of inequalities to heighten the urgency of global social justice work. It then reviews documents connected to sustainability in Catholic social teaching, with an emphasis on Laudato Si by Pope Francis.Finally, through a brief analysis of a contemporary documentary film, “Virunga” (2014),2 which focuses on a crisis that recently occurred in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, this paper illustrates an impactful and effective way to articulate global inequality and mobilize coalitions to protect people, creatures and land against violence and environmental degradation.Social documentaries, in general, represent voices for justice and the common good shared by all major religions, and the documents of the Catholic Church highlighted in the paper offer a concrete trajectory for global justice that we see in cinematic form.