Virunga Alliance

The Park is located in a region best described as a low intensity conflict zone. Rangers are deployed throughout its territory, with the exception of its northern extremities, currently in the hands of the ADF-NALU militias, and the region of Masisi in the extreme South - a territory with a lower ecological value. The number of armed groups’ members is estimated at 1,500 and 3,000 individuals in and around the Park. These groups engage in criminal activities including trafficking of charcoal, illegal fishing, illegal agriculture, poaching for ivory and bush meat, kidnapping, and extortion (barriers and taxes).

Civilians are the first victims of armed groups, including through kidnappings and attacks. In a recent report, the Kivu Security Tracker estimates that 3,000 incidents claimed the lives of over 6,000 people between 2017 and 2019 in both South and North Kivu. Hundreds of kidnapping cases are also recorded each year. Human Right Watch published an in-depth investigation for the period 2017-2020 in the Rutshuru area specifically.

Armed groups are responsible for numerous violent deaths among civilians and the Park’s rangers. Over 200 rangers have been killed in the line of duty in the past 25 years.

The region has one of the highest population densities in Africa with around 300 inhabitants/km2. Five million people live within a day’s walk of the Park boundaries, one of the highest rural population densities in Africa.

The socio-economic conditions for the Park’s adjacent populations are extremely precarious. Outside the cities, residents live mainly off subsistence agriculture, livestock and fishing. Land in the region is fertile but yields remain low because of land tenure problems, lack of access to credit, insecurity and poor agricultural practices. The transformation industry for agricultural produce is largely absent, and there are few jobs outside smallholder farming. The poor state of the roads further adds to the challenges.

In North Kivu, more than 90% of the population survive below the extreme poverty threshold defined by the World Bank at 1.9 USD per day per person. Destitution is such that many of the poorest are entirely excluded from the monetary economy and daily work is often paid for in food or agricultural products.

The income generated from natural resource trafficking from the Park is estimated at 175 million USD per year. Over 100,000 people derive their direct livelihood from these illegal activities. About 50 million USD of this figure contributes to the wealth of irregular militia groups. The money they obtain from kidnappings, robberies and murders adds to their power. Tolls collected at informal road barriers also represent indirect revenues from the Park’s products.

International trafficking involves the removal of ivory and hardwoods. This international trafficking poses a serious risk, especially for elephants, but its impact remains low compared to local trafficking. The clearance of forest to produce charcoal is a major threat. Charcoal, known locally as “makala” is massively consumed by the inhabitants of the cities of Goma, Beni and Butembo. To a lesser extent, wood is also used for carpentry and construction.

The degradation of natural habitats, particularly deforestation and illegal crop production, is another major problem, affecting one fifth of the park’s area. Armed groups extort “protection” payments from those cultivating crops within the Park boundaries. The shores of Lake Edward attract armed groups. They extort money from legal fishermen, or fish themselves, using techniques that cause serious damage to the environment. At the same time, they slaughter hippos and other large mammals, either consuming or selling their meat.

The threat of oil exploitation, which was very present in 2015, has diminished temporarily, but remains real. The Park’s success in opposing illegal oil lies in the efforts of ICCN and its partners to uphold the rule of law. The very low price of a crude barrel also helps to ward off the threat.