Garamba National Park also known as “Parc National des Garamba” is considered to be the largest natural area found in northeastern region of Democratic Republic of Congo at the border with south Sudan. Sitting on an area of about 4920 km2 (1900 square miles), Garamba national park was established in 1938 and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in the year 1980. Garamba national park lies at 2300-3500 feet elevation and comprises of a marshland depression and an extensive plateau in addition to inselbergs, made of granite.
It is proved beyond doubt that before poachers and other threats reduced the park’s number of elephants to as low as 1200, Garamba national park was once a habitat of 22000 elephants in 1970s. It is also quite unfortunate that by the year 2000 Garamba national park had run short rhinos. This was to a larger extent brought about by the armed poachers most especially the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels who continuously hunted the animals down for ivory. It was indeed a blow not only to residents of the area but also to biodiversity especially the giant African elephants.
The war against poaching in this park was reached by signing of various conservation concessions and agreements between the Institut pour la Conservation (ICCN) and African Parks Organization in the year 2005 to ensure stability and halt the park’s destruction. With support from donors and well-wishers, Garamba national park’s history was redefined in 2016 by implementing an extensive law enforcement strategy. This was made possible by increasing security measures by recruiting park rangers, staff and sensitizing local communities.
Implementation of this strategy has realized a number of achievements as per the recent statistics; there is immense reduction in elephant poaching by 90%, rangers no longer succumb to armed poachers since 2017 in addition to increase in the population of wildlife such as the kordofan giraffe.
Garamba has continuously been a source of employment to the neighboring communities and the nation as a whole, the park employs more than five hundred locals in addition to over 2000 short term contract workers.
Major rivers surround Garamba national park from east, west and south, with its neighbor to the northern wing being Lantoto national park of South Sudan – a reliable protected area at both local and regional levels.
Fauna and Flora in Garamba National park.
In Africa, Garamba national park is one of the oldest parks, comprising of vast savannah grasslands which are undulating and dense forests. The park is primarily famous for being home to giraffes and elephants in the region.
Flora
Garamba national park is made up of a mixture of different vegetation species in that; savannah grasslands took the southern share of the park full of scattered trees whereas the northern parts are covered by a mixture of woodland and dense dry forests together with riverine and swamp forests. On the other hand, hunting regions of Garamba national park comprise of dense savannah, lush patches of forests and mixed deciduous woodland.
Fauna
Garamba national park is home to a number of elephant species that demonstrate common morphological characteristics to the two elephant sub-species. In addition to forest elephants, Congolese endemic giraffes and bush elephants, Garamba comprises of the northern white rhinoceros in large quantities. The abundant water sources in the park attract a good number of herbivores thus making Garamba a destination of rich biodiversity.
Carnivores. Lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, serval cats and other small carnivores are some of Garamba national park’s resident predator species but can only be seen either at night or on a lucky sunny day.
Primates: Chimpanzees, the De Brazza’s monkeys, patas monkeys, guereza colobus and vervet monkeys are some of the park’s primate residents.
Other Species: The two most prolific species in Garamba national park are the Nile buffalo and hippopotamuses. Additionally, other species include but not limited to; bushbuck, Uganda kob, hartebeest, sitatunga, blue duiker, oribi, blue-backed duiker and roan antelope.
Avifauna.
Over 340 birds have been recorded in Garamba national park. The banks of River Dungu are some of the spectacular colonies of mighty carmine bee-eater. Huge populations of cattle egrets are always visible among herds of buffaloes.
