Virunga National Park

维龙加国家公园

🇮🇹 Democratic Republic of the Congo📅 1979 Inscribed

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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.

Insight I

This is the first World Heritage site still on the 'World Heritage in Danger' list (since 1994) from my daily updates.

Ongoing conflicts in the region have led to the deaths of many park staff, including Chief Warden Emmanuel de Merode, who was assailed in 2014. The 'militarization of conservation' remains a controversial issue.

Insight II

The park spans a vast range of ecosystems, from low-altitude swamps (680m) to high-altitude snowfields (5109m). It includes two of Africa’s most active volcanoes and features an extraordinary diversity of habitats, surpassing any other African national park. It is home to Africa’s largest hippopotamus population and harbors one-third of the world’s mountain gorilla population.