Southern White Rhinos Reintroduced in Garamba National Park

Sixteen southern white rhinoceros from South Africa were safely transferred to Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

This transfer which took place on Friday, June 9, 2023, was confirmed to this eTN correspondent by Dr. Justin Aradjabu Rsdjabu Lomata, DRC General Administrator at Jeffery Travels, a tourism, environment, nature conservation and sustainable development travel agency based in the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo precisely in Kisangani in the province of Tshopo.

 The white rhinoceros was the emblematic and endemic species of Garamba National Park before its disappearance in 2006 following poaching. Its reintroduction, therefore, aims to restore the complete richness of the Garamba complex. 

“This will strengthen the contribution of this protected area to the economy of flora and fauna in the DRC, thus generating benefits for local communities and all Congolese in general.”

“[It is] a way to promote sustainable socio-economic growth,” added Milan Yves Ngangay, the Director General of ICCN (L’Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature), The Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, who has co-managed the park with the international organization, African Parks, for 18 years. This project was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Barrick Gold corporation. 

Garamba National Park

Garamba National Park is among the oldest national parks in Africa. It was gazetted in 1938. The park is located in Orientale Province, northeast of THE Democratic Republic of Congo, and it borders with South Sudan. In 1980, the park was designated A World Heritage Site by UNESCO due to its great biodiversity and huge numbers of wildlife species.

Garamba National Park covers an area the size of 5,200 km2, and it is administered by African Parks, which is a non-profit organization that takes on direct responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of protected areas in Africa, as well as the Institute Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN).

The park is famous for being a home to herds of elephants and the Kordofan giraffe.

The park is rich in biodiversity despite  civil unrest that decimated the rhino population. It is characterized by savannah grasslands, papyrus, tropical rainforests, rocky outcrops, and marshlands with dotted inselbergs.

Various rivers cross through the park such as the River Dungu and River Garamba; these act as a source of water for the animals. The park has a diversity of wildlife ranging from large herds of elephants, giant forest hogs, buffaloes, duikers, hyenas, waterbucks, mongoose, bush pigs, golden cats, vervet monkeys, De Brazza’s monkeys, Olive baboons, Kordofan giraffes, as well as over 1,000 tree species of which about 5% are endemic to the park.

Besides these animals, the park is a home to over 340 bird species such as the squaco heron, knob billed ducks, fishing eagle, white backed pelicans, pied kingfisher, spur winged plovers, water thick knee, black crake, wattled plovers, long tailed cormorant, and white-faced whistling among others.