- African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis)
- Albertine owlet (Glaucidium albertinum)
- Eastern chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)
- Mount Kahuzi climbing mouse (Dendromus kahuziensis)
- Maclaud's horseshoe bat(Rhinolophus maclaudi)
- Lowland bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus eurycerus)
- African forest buffalo (Syncerus caffer nanus)
- Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius)
- Giant forest hog(Hylochoerus meinertzhageni)
- Leopard (Panthera pardus)
- Ruwenzori otter shrew (Micropotamogale ruwenzorii)
- Olive baboon (Papio anubis)
- Yellow-crested Helmet-shrike (Prionops alberti)
- Congo peafowl (Afropavo congensis)
- African green broadbill (Pseudocalyptomena graueri)
- Rockefeller's sunbird (Nectarinia rockefelleri)
The Kahuzi-Biega National Park is
a protected
area near Bukavu town
in eastern Democratic
Republic of the Congo. It is situated near the
western bank of Lake
Kivu and the Rwandan border. Established in 1970 by the Belgian photographer and
conservationist Adrien Deschryver, the park is named after two dormant
volcanoes, Mount
Kahuzi and Mount
Biega, which are within its limits. With an
area of 6,000 square kilometres (2,300 sq mi), Kahuzi-Biega is one
of the biggest national parks 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(Gorilla beringei graueri),
an endangered category under the IUCN Red List. The park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1980 for its unique biodiversity of
rainforest habitat and its eastern lowland gorillas.
Geography
The park lies west of the Bakavu town in South Kivu Province, covering an area of 6000 km2.
A small part of the park is in Mitumba Mountain range of the Albertine Rift in the Great Rift Valley, and the larger part is in lowland terrain. A
corridor of 7.4 kilometres (4.6 mi) width joins the mountainous and
lowland terrain.The eastern part of the park is the smaller mountainous region
measuring 600 square kilometres (230 sq mi); the larger part
measures 5,400 square kilometres (2,100 sq mi) and consists mainly
of lowland stretching from Bukavu to Kisangani, drained by the Luka and Lugulu rivers which flow into the Lualaba River.[3] Two
dormant volcanoes are set within the park's limits and lend their names to
it: Kahuzi (3,308 metres (10,853 ft)) and Biéga (2,790
metres (9,150 ft)).
The
park receives an average annual precipitation of 1,800 millimetres
(71 in). The maximum temperature recorded in the area is 18 °C
(64 °F) while the minimum is 10.4 °C (50.7 °F).
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.
Flora and fauna
The
park has a rich diversity of flora and fauna and provides protection to 1,178
plant species in the mountainous region of the park, with some 136 species of
mammals 349 species of birds, as of 2003.
Flora
The park's swamps, bogs, marshland and riparian forests 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, with an area of
transition forest between 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) and 1,500 metres
(4,900 ft). The eastern mountainous sector includes continuous forest
vegetation from 600 metres (2,000 ft) to over 2,600 metres
(8,500 ft), 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, swamp forest, high-altitude rainforest, mountain rainforest, bamboo forest and subalpine heather. Mountain and swamp forest grows between 2,000
metres (6,600 ft) and 2,400 metres (7,900 ft), bamboo forest grows
between 2,350 metres (7,710 ft) and 2,600 metres (8,500 ft), and the
summits of Mounts Kahuzi and Biéga above 2,600 metres (8,500 ft) have
subalpine heather, dry savannah, and grasslands, as well as the endemic
plant Senecio kahuzicus.
Fauna
Among the 136 species of mammals identified in the park,
the eastern lowland gorilla is the most prominent. According to a 2008 status
report of the DR of Congo, the park had 125 lowland gorillas, a marked
reduction from the figure of 600 gorillas of the pre-1990's conflict period,
and consequently the species has been listed in the endangered list. The park
is the last refuge of this rare species. According to the census survey
of eastern lowland gorillas reported by the Wildlife
Conservation Society in April 2011, at
least 181 gorillas were recorded in the park.
Other primates include the eastern chimpanzee, and several Cercopithecinae, Colobinae and owl-faced monkey. Some of the mammals include the bush elephant, bush
buffalo, hylochere and bongo, Aquatic
civet, eastern
needle-clawed galago, Maclaud's
horseshoe bat, Ruwenzori
least otter shrew, and Alexander's
bush squirrel.
The
species of fauna listed under the IUCN Red List as threatened include:
The
species of fauna listed under the IUCN Red List as least concern or near
threatened include:
Avifauna
on the IUCN Red List are also mentioned:
Conservation
The park, under the management of the Institut
Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature,
has a basic management and surveillance structure. However, the park's 1975
expansion, which included inhabited lowland areas, resulted in forced
evacuations with about 13,000 people of the tribal community of Shi, Tembo and
Rega affected and refusing to leave. Cooperation by the communities
living around the park and employment of the Twa people to enforce park
protection was pursued by the park authorities. In 1999 a plan was developed
to protect the people and the resources of the park.