maiko-description : Protected Areas in the Congo Basin: Failing both people and biodiversity?

Country: Democratic Republic of Congo

Type and IUCN Category: National Park (IUCN category: II)

Size (hectares): 1,083,000

Date of creation: November 20, 1970

CARPE landscape: Maiko-Tayna-Kahuzi-Biega

Management plan: There is a draft management plan but it hasn’t been validated (PAPACO 2010: 2).

Local communities: Around 500-700 individuals belonging to a rebel group and self-defence militia, known as the Simba Mai-Mai, have lived in the park since 1964 (Congo Biodiversity Initiative 2010). Bambuti indigenous communities were reportedly present in the park before its creation, but were evicted.

Administration: Maiko National Park is administered by the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN). Conservation projects have been undertaken by the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FSZ), the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (DFGF-I) and Flora and Fauna International (FFI) (PAPACO 2010). The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have also supported the park in the past (Do or Die 1998; PAPACO 2010). The park has been occupied by paramilitary groups since the 1960s which greatly limits conservation interventions (Do or Die 1998; FDAPYD et al. 2014).

Biodiversity information : The park is home to endemic species such as the Grauer’s gorilla, the Okapi, and the Congo Peafowl, and is the only National Park in the DRC to contain all three (Wilondja-As Ngobobo 2010; Mallon et al 2015). It is also home to significant populations of elephant, chimpanzee, bongo and leopard and has been designated an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (BirdLife International 2016).

There is however little recent information because the high level of insecurity in eastern DRC has hindered research and field surveys (IUCN/PAPACO 2010: 22).

Neighbouring and overlapping extractive industries (Mapping for Rights):

12 mining concessions border Maiko National Park:

(1-3) concessions 1382, 1383 and 1384 (managed by LONCOR RESOURCES between 2003 and 2008);
(4) concession 3378 (managed by LONCOR RESOURCES since 2005);
(5) concession 7726 (managed by GENESIS SPRL since 2007);
(6) concession 6289 (managed by KASHAMA MUTEBA since 2007);
(7) concession 4677 (managed by MINIERE DU MAN since 2005);
(8-9) concessions 6711 and 6717 (managed by Z.R. A EXPLOITAT since 2006);
(10) concession 6137 (managed by INTERMINES SPRL between 2007 and 2012); and
(11-12) concessions 7704 and 7703 (managed by DIYA BITANGILAYI since 2007).

Two oil permits have overlapped the park since 2013: concessions 06 and 12

Information available on funding:

(Please note that some of these grants may be covering several protected areas or landscapes.)

National Forest and Nature Conservation Program (2009-2013)
Funders: International Development Association and Global Environment Facility
Objective: Institutional capacity building, participatory management of forest resources in the provinces of Bandundu, Equateur, and Orientale as well as rehabilitation of Maiko National Park.
Funds: $70,000,000 (Specific amount dedicated to Maiko National Park unknown)

Grauer’s Gorillas and Chimpanzees in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo – (Kahuzi-Biega, Maiko, Tayna and Itombwe Landscape) Conservation Action Plan (2012-2022)
Funder: The Arcus Foundation/ The World We Want Foundation
Objective: Conservation of eastern chimpanzees and Grauer’s gorillas in their habitat.
Project area: Kahuzi-Biega, Maiko, Tayna and Itombwe Landscape
Grant Manager: Jane Goodall Institute (JGI)
Funds: No available information. (Specific amount dedicated to Maiko National Park unknown)

Assessment and development of a modernised, extended network of protected areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2009-2014
Funder: WWF Germany
Objective: Development of bases for the planning, designation and improvement of a protected area network in the Congo Basin (target: 15% of the land area) with a focus on the biological diversity of forests, freshwater ecosystems and their functioning as carbon sinks.
Grant manager: The DRC Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Tourism (MECNT),
Congolese Wildlife Authority (Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature – ICCN), DRC Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
Funds: $1,990,000 across a network of protected areas in the DRC (Specific amount dedicated to the Maiko NP unknown).