Kahuzi Biega National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo with 6,000 Square Kilometers formed in 1970 is one of the largest protected areas. It was started by Belgian photographer and conservationist Adrien Deschryver. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980 and in 1997; it was listed as a World Heritage Site in danger which forced the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and other conservation organizations to work together towards the conservation of wildlife animals particularly the rare eastern lowland gorillas an endangered group under the IUCN Red List. Kahuzi Biega derives its name from Mount Kahuzi and Mount Biega which are dormant volcanoes located in the park. Mount Kahuzi and Mount Biega stand at 3,308 meters above sea level and 2,790 meters respectively. The park has another mountain called Mount Bugulumiza. Kahuzi Biega National Park receives an average yearly rainfall of 1,800 mm with temperatures alternating between 18 degrees Celsius and 10.4 degrees Celsius.

Location

It's located west of Bukavu town in South Kivu province in Eastern the Democratic Republic of Congo on the western bank of Lake Kivu. A small part of the national park is found in Mitumba Mountain range within the Albertine Rift Valley while a larger part of the national park is situated in the lowland terrain stretching from Bukavu to Kisangani, drained by the Luka and Lugulu rivers which flow into the Lualaba River.

Vegetation

Kahuzi Biega is composed of montane forests that favor the thriving of the eastern lowland gorilla hence making gorilla trekking the major tour activity at the National park.

Flora and Fauna

The national park has a rich diversity of flora and fauna. It protects roughly 349 species of birds and 136 species of mammals. Over 1,178 plant species are in the highland regions of the park alone

Flora

The western lowland sector of the park is dominated by dense Guineo-Congolian wet equatorial rainforest, part of the Northeastern Congolian lowland forests ecoregion, with an area of transition forest between 1,200 meters and 1,500 meters The eastern mountainous sector includes continuous forest vegetation from 600 meters to over 2,600 meters, 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, bamboo forests have subalpine heather, dry savannah, and grasslands, as well as the endemic plant Senecio kahuzicus

Fauna

The park shelters 136 species of mammals species than any other national park in the Albertine Rift with the eastern lowland gorilla as most common. Kahuzi Biega has 125 lowland gorillas, a noticeable decrease from the total of 600 gorillas of the pre-1990's war period thus the species was listed in the endangered list. In the last Wildlife Conservation Society census in April 2011, 181 gorillas were recorded in the park. Other primates include several Cercopithecinae, Colobinae, owl-faced monkey and the eastern chimpanzee. Mammals include the bush elephant, bongo, bush buffalo, eastern needle-clawed galago, Maclaud's horseshoe bat, Ruwenzori least otter shrew, Alexander's bush squirrel and hylochere. Endemic species of genet (animal) that is to say the aquatic genet and the giant forest gene live within the park are to the Congo Basin. There are over 349 bird species within Kahuzi Bahiga, 42 of them are endemic to the region, including the threatened Albertine owlet. Additional native bird species include the Yellow-crested Helmet-shrike (Prionops alberti), the Congo peafowl (Afropavo congensis), the African green broadbill (Pseudocalyptomena graueri), and the Rockefeller's sunbird (Nectarinia rockefelleri)

The threatened fauna species listed under the IUCN Red List include; Eastern chimpanzee, Albertine owlet, African forest elephant, Maclaud's horseshoe bat, and Mount Kahuzi climbing mouse. The near threatened fauna species under the IUCN Red List include; Hippopotamus, African forest buffalo, Lowland bongo, Giant forest hog, Ruwenzori otter shrew, Leopard and Olive baboon. A survey done in 2020 of the freshwater fish in the park and its three drainage basins identified 147 species, 11 of which were found to be endemic to the Lowa River basin and Cyprinidae was the largest represented family

Conservation

Kahuzi Biega is managed by the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature. In 1975 the park expanded to include inhabited lowland areas, resulting in forced evacuations with about 13,000 people of the tribal community of Shi, Tembo and Rega affected and refusing to leave. Collaboration by the communities living around the park and employment of the Twa people to enforce park protection was pursued by the park authorities. In a survey conducted between 2015 and 2016, the national park rangers reported low levels of job satisfaction highlighting low salaries, lack of support from the authorities, and poor living conditions.