Maiko National Park (French: Parc national de la Maïko) is a national park located in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
History
In 1949, the Belgian colonial government established the Bakumu Hunting Reserve (Bakumu means "The Kumus," the local tribe in the area) on land that later became the boundaries of the park as it exists today. The original plan focused on stopping the use of mineral resources, not on protecting nature or wildlife.
On November 20, 1970, Presidential Decree no. 70-312 was signed by Joseph Désiré Mobutu. This decree, linked to a law passed the year before that created the ICCN, officially designated Maiko National Park as a protected area for nature conservation.
The park’s remote and difficult-to-reach location made it a suitable place for Simba rebels to hide after their defeat in 1964. Since then, the rebels have survived by hunting wildlife and managing illegal mining in the park. Their presence is partly due to the failure of government groups to follow the required actions outlined in the 1970 decree.
This unstable and dangerous situation has made it hard for rangers to patrol the park, especially after the ICCN was forced by the Congolese army to help attack the rebels. Conservation efforts have been disrupted, leading to the capture and detention of several survey teams between 2003 and 2005. At least three other rebel groups, including the Rwandan Interahamwe in the eastern part of the park, are also active in different areas. This has left the ICCN unable to control the park effectively.
The first detailed study of Maiko National Park took place in 1989. The Wildlife Conservation Society, supported by the ICCN (then called ZICN), the World Bank, the European Community, and the WWF, conducted surveys along about 950 kilometers of transects in the area.
In 2005, the Wildlife Conservation Society studied the northern part of the park. The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund also surveyed the southern part of the park for the first time in over a decade that year, finding a larger gorilla population than earlier studies had reported.
In 2006, the Wildlife Conservation Society studied another area in the southern sector. These surveys showed that Maiko National Park faces serious threats but still holds a significant number of rare and unique species.
A more recent survey in 2010 focused on the forests west and south of the park. It found that threats had worsened since 2005 and recorded the disappearance of one gorilla subpopulation identified in the 2005 surveys. Observations showed that hunting by miners and the widespread use of guns are major threats to the park’s wildlife.
A new conservation strategy has involved offering compensation to Simba rebels who agree to leave the park. In 2010, FFI began building health centers and schools in villages influenced by the rebels. That same year, FZS started a project to help some rebels reintegrate into society by training them as park rangers, which supports nature conservation in Maiko.
Geography and environment
The park is located in one of the most remote forested areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and covers an area of 10,885 km² (4,203 mi²). It is divided into three sectors that span parts of the provinces of Nord Kivu, Province Orientale, and Maniema. The park includes tropical rainforests that have not been disturbed by humans and are surrounded by many rivers. The northern sector is part of the southern edge of the Ituri Rainforest. The eastern sector is mostly flat, with an elevation of about 1,000 meters near the Lindi River. To the east, the land becomes higher. Several rivers begin in the hills to the north, east, and south. The vegetation consists of tall, dense, evergreen rainforests in lowland areas, with smaller areas of younger forests near human settlements. Rainfall is heavy, peaking in October and November, and the driest months are July and August.
The park is home to three of the country’s most famous animals that are found nowhere else in the world: Grauer’s gorilla, the okapi, and the Congo peafowl. It is also an important place for protecting the African forest elephant, the eastern chimpanzee, and the aquatic genet, which is found only in this region. The park has been named an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports large numbers of many bird species.