Sites in Conflict: The Democratic Republic of the Congo
Heritage is our legacy—our gift to future generations. A UNESCO World Heritage site designation engages local, national, and international groups to preserve and protect these natural and cultural treasures.
But sometimes this designation isn’t enough. Many factors, from natural disasters to manmade threats, can jeopardize the integrity of the very characteristics for which a World Heritage site is inscribed.
About 45% of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is covered by forest, providing shelter and habitat to plant and animal life extinct in other nations. Overall, the DRC houses over 11,000 plant, 450 mammal, 1150 bird, 300 reptile, and 200 amphibian species.
Civil unrest and armed conflict from the mid-1990s to today has devastated the DRC, claiming an estimated 4 million human lives since 1998. This war—considered the deadliest war since World War II—has also had a drastic implications for wildlife in the DRC.
During the war, fighting between rival militia groups toppled national park rangers and overtook huge areas of land within these World Heritage sites. As a result, UNESCO has designated all five sites as “seriously threatened” placing them on their “List of World Heritage in Danger.” This list is designed to alert the international community to the active threats which these sites face, and to encourage corrective action.
Perhaps the most horrifying example of the impact of conflict on these sites is occurring in Virunga National Park, the oldest national park in Africa. Virunga was named a World Heritage Site in 1979 for its natural habitats—essential to the preservation of biological diversity and endangered species, including the mountain gorilla. There are only around 700 mountain gorillas left in the world, and more than half of them live in Virunga National Park. Today, protracted conflict continues to threaten this dwindling population. After one attack in July of this year, for example, five mountain gorillas were slaughtered.
The very survival of these majestic animals is now at risk, despite a tenuous peace that has existed for the past few years. But human lives are also in jeopardy. Park rangers struggle to protect the parks and themselves every day, and about 100 rangers working in the DRC have been killed over the past decade by armed groups and poachers. This reality, combined with poor or often unpaid wages for park staff, means that vital wildlife has little or no protection from outside forces.
Since 2000, UNESCO and the United Nations Foundation have worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo to conserve natural heritage in periods of war and conflict. As a result of this initiative, millions of dollars have been channeled to the DRC to address the issue of World Heritage site protection and provide funding for salaries of more than 1,000 park guards.
You can help. Learn more here, or support these efforts, in the DRC and elsewhere by donating to Friends of World Heritage.
Other World Heritage sites in conflict
- In Iraq, irreversible damage is being done by the destruction and looting of artifacts. Read about UNESCO’s attempt to stop this catastrophe.
- In Afghanistan serious damage has been done to the Buddhas in the Bamiyan Valley. What is being done to save them?
- See the full list of World Heritage sites in danger.
