Two leading organisations have signed a memorandum of understanding to ensure a better protection of the Virunga National Park, a World Heritage site in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The agreement, between UN-HABITAT and WWF, marks the first time the two agencies with different mandates have joined hands in an effort to pursue the same goal of recognising their mutual interest in the management of the Virunga National Park, and other protected areas.
The two organisations will undertake the joint programme in consultation with local communities, and the ICCN, the Institut Conglais pour la Protection de la Nature.
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. It was classified as a World Heritage Site in 1979.
WWF is the world’s leading conservation organization founded in 1961. The regional programme office for Eastern and Southern Africa is represented in North Kivu by its Virunga Environmental Programme. The programme’s main goal is the preservation of the biodiversity of Virunga National Park and in creating a harmony between the park and the development of the communities living around it.
UN-HABITAT has been implementing a large-scale land conflict resolution programme in eastern Congo, including areas around the Virunga National Park, to assist refugees and internally displaced people returning home.
UN-HABITAT and WWF share the common objective to achieve the Millennium Development Goal related to environmental sustainability and recognise the impact of human settlement and displacement on biodiversity and the natural environment especially in the post-conflict situation in the east of the country.
WWF’s participatory demarcation approach will contribute to the resolution of several conflicts linked to land tenure bordering the protected area. UN-HABITAT has a solid experience in land conflict mediation, land administration and land management. Both organizations thus recognise the benefits of synchronising resources and expertise for the development of a joint long term programme in the Congo, especially its Eastern Province.
