The African continent’s oldest and most biologically-diverse national park, and a UNESCO World Heritage site, Virunga’s vast expanses of grassland, swathes of forest, and volcanic mountains and lakes make most other landscapes pale in comparison.
It is situated in eastern Congo, Virunga was founded in 1925 by King Albert of Belgium, partly as means as of protecting the mountain gorilla population in the area, always of central importance to Virunga. The park, however, has seen a series of tumultuous reversals of fortune. A long period of neglect followed independence in 1960, and was followed by bitter and long-running civil wars that not only disrupted infrastructure and weakened the rule of law, but also made travel to the country all but impossible. However, thanks in large part to the work of chief warden Emmanuel de Merode, gorilla caretaker Andre Bauma and their team of rangers, the park and its denizens are the focus of considerably more attention and funding, and the ...
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