Lomami National Park
| Lomami National Park | |
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IUCN category II (national park)
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African grey parrots in the park
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| Location | Democratic Republic of Congo |
| Nearest city | Kindu |
| Coordinates | 2°0′0″S 25°2′0″E / 2.00000°S 25.03333°E |
| Area | 8,879 square kilometres (3,428 sq mi) |
| Established | 2016 |
| Governing body | Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) |
Lomami National Park (French: Parc National de la Lomami) is a national park located in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa. Situated within the middle basin of the Lomami River, it straddles the Provinces of Tshopo and Maniema with a slight overlap into the forests of the Tshuapa and Lualaba river basins. The National Park was formally declared on 7 July 2016. It is the 9th national park in the country and the first to be created since 1992.
Lomami National Park consists of 8,879 km² (887,900 hectares) of tropical lowland rainforest with savanna islands in the south and hills in the west. It is home to several nationally endemic species including Bonobo, Okapi, Congo peafowl, and a newly discovered primate species called Lesula, as well as the rare Dryas monkey known locally as Inoko. An important population of African forest elephant is still protected in the northern part of the park.
The southeastern range of the bonobo (a Congolese endemic great ape found only on the left bank of the Congo River) was unstudied until 2007. On satellite images the probable area appeared as nearly 40,000 km2 of unexplored rainforest showing no roads, human habitation, or agricultural clearings. Working with the Lukuru Foundation, John and Terese Hart, a couple involved in research and conservation of DR Congo's forests since the early 1980s, launched a dugout up the Lomami River in April 2007. On board were 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 much of the outer forests depleted of large animals by the commercial bushmeat trade, but a rich core remained. This area too was threatened by hunters, many coming from far away – even from other Provinces – to supply the markets with wild meat in the major towns of Kisangani and Kindu.
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