Lomami National Park

Lomami National Park is a vast and remarkable park that is situated in the middle basin of the Lomami River in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The park is spread across 8,879 km² of tropical lowland rainforest, featuring savanna islands in the south and hills in the west. It is the ninth national park in the country and the first to be created since 1992. Lomami National Park is home to several nationally endemic species, including the Bonobo, Okapi, Congo peafowl, and the rare Dryas monkey, known locally as Inoko. This park is also home to a newly discovered primate species called Lesula, which was encountered in 2007 and eventually determined to be new to science. In the northern part of the park, an important population of African forest elephants is still protected.The southeastern range of the bonobo was unstudied until 2007 when John and Terese Hart, working with the Lukuru Foundation, launched a dugout up the Lomami River with several forest teams ready to inventory the area on foot over the next three years. They named the area Tshuapa–Lomami–Lualaba Conservation Landscape (TL2) after the three rivers Tshuapa, Lomami and Lualaba, whose forests they explored. They found that TL2 was home to populations of other endemic and endangered species such as Okapi, Congo Peacock, Forest Elephant and significant populations of many non-human primate species including the rare Dryas monkey and some other interesting phenotypic varieties of known species.With meetings in village centers and town halls, and outreach missions led by ministers, chiefs, and deputies, the process to establish a national park began. The surrounding villages defined the limits of the national park by 2012, and the governors of both Maniema and Tshopo Provinces declared provincial parks, making all hunting within the parks illegal. After nearly a decade of collaborative work, the Lomami National Park was officially decreed by DR Congo’s national government on July 7, 2016.The Lomami National Park is located in two provinces: Tshopo and Maniema. It lies south of Kisangani, the capital of Tshopo Province, and northwest of Kindu, the capital of Maniema Province. The Lomami River forms the western border at the southern limit of the park and flows through the center of the northern part of the park.This river, as a biogeographic barrier, has influenced the evolution of wildlife in the region. Two other rivers, Tshuapa and Lualaba, define the general east-west limits of the TL2 landscape. Edaphic, hydromorphic savannas emerge from the forest in the southernmost part of the TL2 landscape, whereas forest cover is more consistent in the north, although varying from hill-forest to low elevation upland forest to seasonally flooded forest and riverine forest.The local population living in the buffer zone of the Lomami National Park belong primarily to seven different ethnic groups: Lengola, Mbole, Mituku, Langa, Tetela, Ngengele, and Arabisé. The approximately 100 small villages live primarily on agriculture, hunting, and fishing.Lomami National Park is a testament to the amazing and diverse wildlife that can be found in the Democratic Republic of Congo. With its vast area of rainforest and savanna, it is home to many unique and endangered species, including the recently discovered Lesula primate species.