Virunga

In 1925, Africa’s first national park, Parc Albert, was created in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 1969, the park was renamed the Virunga National Park and was given UNESCO world heritage status in 1979 due to its unique population of mountain gorillas and its active volcanoes. However, events in the 1990s had a catastrophic effect on the park: First the Rwandan genocide caused a mass population influx, then the Congolese civil war further exacerbated the violence, deforestation and poaching. There followed in recent years unscrupulous activities of foreign mining companies and the M23 rebellion in the heart of the park. Over 150 rangers have lost their lives defending the park in the past decade alone and there is a continued threat to its very existence – as illustrated by the 2014 documentary Virunga. Without the work of the Virunga Alliance, a dedicated team of local staff (led by the peerless Emmanuel de Merode) and international charitable foundations, the park will disappear and its population of critically endangered mountain gorillas with it. With tourism currently on hold, funding is now more vital than ever.

These four photographs were taken in 2017 and have been donated to the Virunga National Park, which has teamed up with Fine Art America to offer prints for sale at http://prints.virunga.org/. All proceeds will go to the park.