Maiko National Park

In one of the most remote forest areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), three of the country’s spectacular endemic animals occur side by side: Grauer’s gorilla, the okapi, and the Congo peacock.  Maiko National Park (MNP) was officially created in 1970. However, from the beginning, financial and technical support for the management of the Park remained insufficient. The Park’s situation did not improve during the subsequent national wars when armed militia sought refuge in Maiko, exploiting not only its rich fauna but also its mineral resources. The national conservation institute, Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN), was unable to hire or equip the personnel necessary to monitor the Park borders. WCS conducted two surveys (in the late 1980s and 2005) to assess the state of the natural resources in Maiko NP. WCS is committed to helping build technical capacity and infrastructure to assure the long-term protection of this often ignored Park.

The Human Aspect
Various forest peoples such as the Kumu, Rombi, Pere, and Bali live around Maiko National Park. These ethnic groups are all highly decentralized, live in scattered villages, and practice small-scale agriculture as well as hunting and fishing. The human danger to the Park is more likely to come from increasing migration of other ethnic groups, such as the Nande, Boa, and Ngelema, to the region, as well as from the armed militias (Simba, MaiMai, and Interhamwe), based in and around the Park. These migrants are drawn to the Maiko area by the hope of sizable financial gains from mining of precious minerals in and around the Park (gold, coltan, diamond, etc.) as well as the fast return from poached ivory and even bushmeat. In conjunction with local ethnic groups, WCS has also worked to clarify land tenure claims that reinforce the rights of local people.

Threats
The biggest threats to the integrity of Maiko National Park are: illegal hunting for ivory and bushmeat, and illegal mining within the Park for gold, coltan, and diamonds.

WCS Activities
Our immediate priorities have been to identify the most obvious opportunities and challenges to doing effective conservation work within Maiko National Park. To achieve our conservation agenda, we pursued the following activities:
• Biological inventories to discover and map where the key wildlife is located and to identify human activities that threaten the resources of the Park.
• Anthropological and economic assessments around and within the Park to map human movements, economic opportunities, and alternative livelihoods. 
• Training of ICCN personnel to improve surveillance, and support for eco-guards to ensure adequate patrols in the Park.

Important Next Steps
Our eventual goals will be based on our success at training Park staff and in forming collaborative working relationships with local communities. We hope that the biological and socio-economic data that WCS has helped to collect will contribute to the preparation of the management plan for Maiko National Park.

For the moment, due to a lack of funds, the WCS-DRC Program has been forced to curtail its activities within Maiko National Park. We are currently seeking funding to continue to provide critical support to ICCN, and we remain hopeful that we will soon be present again in the Park, contributing to the conservation of its extraordinary biodiversity.