Kahuzi-Biéga National Park seasonal visit planner for South Kivu Province

DRC's flagship protected area spanning volcanic highlands and lowland rainforest, home to the last eastern lowland gorillas

Kahuzi-Biega National Park

Kahuzi-Biega National Park occupies a remarkable position in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, near the town of Bukavu along the western shores of Lake Kivu. The park's 6,000 square kilometer expanse creates a critical corridor for biodiversity conservation in a region of extraordinary ecological significance. The eastern sector encompasses approximately 600 square kilometers of mountainous terrain within the Mitumba Mountains, part of the Albertine Rift system that forms the western branch of the Great Rift Valley. Here, the dormant volcanoes Kahuzi and Biéga rise to elevations of 3,308 meters and 2,790 meters respectively, their slopes cloaked in increasingly rare montane forest. The western sector covers approximately 5,400 square kilometers of predominantly lowland terrain, a vast sweep of Guineo-Congolian wet equatorial rainforest that forms part of the Northeastern Congolian lowland forests ecoregion. A narrow corridor just 7.4 kilometers wide connects these two distinct zones, allowing for ecological continuity across the park's complex topography. The park is drained by the Luka and Lugulu rivers, which flow into the Lualaba River system. This combination of volcanic highlands and tropical lowland forest within a single protected area makes Kahuzi-Biega uniquely valuable for conservation, supporting remarkable biodiversity across elevational gradients that few other African parks can match.