Creation of a New National Park,

8,874 km2 of uninhabited forest in the

center
of the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Congos first national Park in over Forty Years
On the seventh of July 2016, Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo of the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) officially established Lomami
National Park, the first national park since 1970 and only the eighth in the
country. This park of 8,874 km2 is carved from what was, ten years ago, the
largest unknown forest block in DR Congo, 40,000 km2 between the rivers
Tshuapa and Lualaba. Therein lies the Lomami basin, an area with little
settlement and about which there was no knowledge, beyond that of local
hunters concerning forest composition or the identity of animals it sheltered.
The Lomami National Park has
been a long time in the making.
In 2007 with funding from Arcus
Foundation, the Abraham
Foundation and US Fish and
Wildlife Service the Lukuru
Foundation started exploring the
unknown forests. Its expedition
was called the TL2 Project, for
the three rivers Tshuapa, Lomami
and Lualaba.
The Project extended the known
range of bonobos, Congos
endemic great ape, further to the
southeast. The TL2 project found
okapi, DR Congos forest giraffe,
where its presence was only
suspected. The Lukuru teams
found Congo peacock, unique to
Congo, abundant throughout the
area. And only a year into
exploration they started to
record a mystery monkey which
later was found to be a new
species, Cercopithecus
lomamiensis.

Furthermore, an extremely rare monkey (Cercopithecus dryas) previously

known only to have a tiny range north of Salonga National Park in Kokolopori,
was again found by the TL2 teams in what now are the Lomami National Park
and its buffer zone. In fact the new national park has more Congo endemics
than any other protected area in the country.
The Lomami National Park also has forest elephants. As elsewhere
throughout the elephants forest range, they are under severe poaching
threat, more so as the gangs that pursue them in the TL2 zone are run by
criminals whose records include rape, murder, pillaging and arson. The
Lukuru teams were only able to help take a stand for the Lomami elephants
through a close collaboration with the Congolese Army, FARDC. With help
from the Wildcat Foundation, the FARDC and ICCN (Congolese Nature
Conservation Institute) have been able to increase security in the park and in
the peripheral communities, both by detecting illegal activity and bringing
justice to bear.
Indeed the building of the Lomami National Park was totally dependent on
collaborations. Lukuru could only do its explorations on the invitation of the
Congolese Nature Conservation Institute (ICCN). It was the director of ICCN,
Cosma Wilungulu, who in 2009, on the basis of Lukuru teams early
discoveries, called for the creation of a National Park. From there, continuous
outreach and collaborations with local chiefs through town baraza meetings
and traditional tambiko ceremonies, first led to community agreement for a
park and eventually to an accord on its limits. Such community agreement
could not have been reached by ICCN and a project working alone; sector
chiefs, territorial administrator and provincial ministers all became involved.
About a year ago it was a joint letter from the governors of Tshopo province
and Maniema province that pushed towards the final national level
agreements, a process that has been closely monitored by the governor of
Maniema along with his environmental minister and provincial deputies and
senators.
In the meantime Lukuru broadened its activities beyond research and
monitoring to include the whole scope of protection and outreach needed to
maintain a park. This became necessary when both Maniema province in
2010 and Tshopo Province (then Orientale) in 2013 created two provincial
parks to protect the area until there was national park status. This meant
Lukuru had to provide surveillance in the park and alternatives for hunters
coming from outside the park. A year ago we started village fish ponds in
three pilot communities and assistance to individual villagers making their
own ponds. The TL2 project teams were responsible for surveillance in
association with military until 2015 when ICCN organized the first guard
training in the Lomami Park with funds coming through the Lukuru
Foundation. These park guards are now dispersed in the seven operational

surveillance camps Lukuru established over the years on the park border or
(one) within the park.
Already monitoring results show that the fauna inside the park is protected
from the severe hunting that occurs in some areas on the park periphery.
Surveillance activities have extended through most of the park and it is
hoped that another ICCN guard training in 2016/17 will facilitate this further.
ICCN selected almost all of the current park guards from the surrounding
communities which themselves include seven separate principle
ethnicities: Mbole, Lengola, Mituku, Langa, Ngengele, Arabises, and Tetela.
This employment as well as employment within our own project as
administrators, researchers, assistants and porters helps show the value of
the park.
The local nature of the teams has certainly added to the enthusiasm and the
determination of the staff on the ground. Without their continuous outreach,
close community connection and ability to foresee problems in advance and
provide local solutions, the plans for a national park would still be far from
realization.
The real challenge is only now getting underway. A National Park is as strong
as the surrounding communities are supportive. Where we have been able
to do the most outreach and the most alternative work, the communities
have held meetings to determine a way forward for managing their own
forest peripheral to the park. DR Congo, in new legislation, provides a way
that communities can work with ICCN to gain permanent control over their
forests if able to show management rules leading to long term forest
sustainability and possibly long term hunting viability. Some communities
have already asked for help in management but we are certain that it will
take a major effort to set up truly sustainable community forest reserves
around the park. The initiative will require many collaborators with a
common goal.