Kahuzi-Biéga National Park

On 27 July 1937 the Governor General of the Belgian colonial administration created the Zoological and Forest Reserve of Mount Kahuzi. In 1970 the Belgian photographer and conservationist Adrien Deschryver established a national park to protect the eastern lowland gorilla, absorbing the old reserve. The park is dominated by two extinct volcanoes, Kahuzi at 3,308 m and Biega at 2,790 m.

In 1975 the park was enlarged from 750 km2 to 6,000 km2. The extension took in inhabited lowlands, and about 13,000 Shi, Tembo and Rega people were told to leave, many of whom refused. In 1980 the park, spanning lowland rainforest, montane forest and bamboo, was inscribed.

In 1997 it was put on the List of World Heritage in Danger because of regional political instability, an influx of refugees and increased exploitation of wildlife. Eastern lowland gorillas, about 600 before the conflicts of the 1990s, numbered 125 in a 2008 status report. Illegal coltan mining also cuts into the forest. In 2022 the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights found that the DRC had violated the rights of the Batwa, including by evicting them without prior consent.