Maiko National Park

Maiko covers around ten thousand square kilometres of lowland and montane rainforest between Kisangani and the Kivus, and it is one of the least-visited protected areas in Africa. Three species make it significant: the okapi, the eastern lowland gorilla, and the Congo peacock, the only large pheasant in Africa and found in this country alone. The park has almost no infrastructure, patrol coverage is partial, and much of the interior has never been systematically surveyed.

History

In 1949 the Belgian colonial administration created the Bakumu Hunting Reserve, named after the Kumu people, over an area that later became the park, mainly to keep out mining rather than to protect wildlife. A presidential decree of 20 November 1970 made Maiko a full national park. The first thorough exploration came in 1989, when the Wildlife Conservation Society, with the national parks agency and support from the World Bank, the European Community and WWF, surveyed some 950 km of transects; further surveys in 2005 and 2006 by WCS and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund found gorillas more widespread than previously thought and showed that Maiko, though highly threatened, holds an important reservoir of endemic and rare species (Wikipedia, Maiko National Park).

What's there

• The rainforest - lowland and montane forest across the whole park, largely unsurveyed.
• The eastern lowland gorilla - present in the eastern sector, in unhabituated groups.
• The Congo peacock - Africa's only large pheasant, endemic to this country.
• The okapi - present through the forest, and effectively never seen.

When to go

The drier windows, December to February and June to August, are the only practical times, and even then movement is on foot. Rain falls year-round. Any visit is a planned expedition rather than a trip.

Before you go

There is no visitor infrastructure of any kind and no road into most of the park. Reaching it means days of walking with porters and full logistics arranged through the park authority. Wildlife is present but unhabituated and sightings are rare.

Nearby

Kisangani is far to the northwest, and the Kivu provinces lie east.

Key facts