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Rangers are transforming the Democratic Republic of Congo's “Triangle of Death” back into a thriving wildlife reserve | Democratic Republic of Congo

RAnger Sylvain Musimi had just gotten up from his morning coffee by the campfire when the rebels opened fire. It was early morning, in the sweltering January heat of Upemba National Park. Sixteen suspected members of the Bakata Katanga militia, their faces painted with white war paint, surprised the group of four rangers just 9 kilometers from Upemba's base camp.

Musimi, 50, was shot four times in the thigh but managed to escape into the bush. A younger colleague who was closer to the campfire was shot dead.

“I could have chosen another job,” says Musimi in an abandoned villa in Lusinga that was destroyed by rebels in 2004 when the situation was much worse. “But I wanted to become a gamekeeper for the good of my country, so that my children could one day see animals in the park.”

  • John Mopeto, head of a ranger detachment, walks across the Kibara Plateau during a scientific survey of Upemba National Park.

Upemba, in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was once a wild land. In its heyday, tens of thousands of elephants were said to roam the park, which was the largest in Africa when it was created by the Belgian colonial administration in 1939. Lions, zebras and other mammals were plentiful. Upemba still covers a vast area – larger than Lebanon – made up of wetlands, savannahs and intricate fingers of gallery forests clustered around rivers. But it was in this wilderness that the Bakata-Katanga rebels found refuge in 1998.

  • Kappia Girlage, 62, is one of the oldest rangers working in the park. His father was also a ranger, and Girlage was born and raised here.

The presence of the militia, which is seeking independence for Congo's mineral-rich Katanga region, has turned much of the park – and areas outside it – into a no-go zone that locals call the “Triangle of Death.” It has also led to a wave of poaching. Many of Upemba's rangers, unpaid during Congo's turbulent wars in the late 1990s and early 2000s, turned to poaching themselves to survive.

“We were forced to kill the animals,” said Girlage Kappia, a 62-year-old ranger who was born in the park. He added that it pains him to think back to the park's former glory.

Years of government neglect and militia conflicts have driven the large animals to near extinction. By the late 2000s, lions had disappeared. Elephants were hunted until only about 150 remained. And the number of zebras in Upemba – the only place in the Democratic Republic of Congo where they are found in the wild – dropped to a precariously low 35.

Instability and violence have long plagued conservation efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where armed groups use vast areas of jungle and savannah as hideouts. The Rwandan-backed M23 rebels control large parts of Virunga National Park, internationally known for its mountain gorillas.

“Nobody knows Upemba – we don’t have any gorillas,” jokes Upemba site manager Christine Lain from her office in Lusinga, which is located on a high plateau.

  • Clockwise from top: Christine Lain, second from right, at the morning parade in Lusinga; rangers cross the Kalumengongo River during a scientific survey; a park ranger scans the horizon for a herd of zebra.

Despite difficult circumstances and limited resources, Upemba has managed to pull itself back from the brink of the abyss. “Step by step, we were able to raise funds,” says Lain, who a few years ago discovered traps in the Lusinga area – a sign that rangers were setting them to poach animals. This has now almost stopped. “We were also able to bring back a group of rangers who had given up hope,” she says.

The current figures are provisional but encouraging. The elephant herd currently numbers around 210 animals, a number that seems to be growing every year. The park is due to collar them this month so they can be tracked. The zebras have also recovered from near extinction and are now estimated to number around 200 animals.

Hiking through the spongy grasslands near Lusinga today reveals a huge variety of wildlife. Endangered wattled cranes peck at the ground, herds of baboons roam the plains and oribis – a type of antelope – leap through the tall grass.

  • Dr. Ruffin Mpanga, Head of Biomonitoring, explains the objectives of the day to Daniel Mukabila, a student at the University of Lubumbashi, and Ruth, Mpanga's assistant.

“You can't walk a kilometer without seeing an antelope,” says Dr. Ruffin Mpanga, the park's biomonitoring manager. “It's a source of pride.”

Improved finances have enabled rangers to be paid and a light aircraft to monitor the reserve to be financed. According to Lain, the priorities now are to increase the number of rangers from 200 to 500 over the next five years and to collect accurate data on the species remaining in the park. In the distant future, the reintroduction of lions is planned.

Upemba's progress may be slow, but it could be a rare conservation success story in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Yet threats remain to the park. Poachers remain active, and distant wisps of smoke or the remains of improvised camps in the park indicate their elusive presence.

Mining is also set to begin at one of the world's largest lithium deposits in Manono, about 190 km from Lusinga. The access road under construction runs along the park boundary, causing increased traffic and associated habitat destruction. The prospect of oil drilling is another threat. In 2022, the Congolese government launched an auction for 30 oil and gas blocks. One of these blocks covers most of Upemba, even though it is a protected area.

Between June and July, a group of five scientists conducted a biodiversity survey in a small part of the park – the first of its kind since a comprehensive Belgian-led scientific expedition in the 1940s. The team spent weeks collecting samples of insects, lizards, small mammals and plants under the watchful eye of park rangers with AK-47 rifles.

  • Clockwise from top: Student Daniel Mukabila collects organism samples from the Kalumengongo River; a butterfly caught during scientific investigation; plant samples collected by Dr. David Goyder, a botanist from Kew Gardens, London; Mukabila, Dr. Chad Keates and Christine Lain; a ranger catches butterflies with a net

According to the scientists, it is too early to draw conclusions about how well preserved the park's ecosystems are, as several more research trips are needed. “We believe the site has a rich biodiversity,” says Dr. Chad Keates, the chief scientist of Hankuzi Explorations, the NGO that organized the recent expedition. “The park definitely needs more detailed studies of animals and plants in different seasons. But the first samples we have taken have definitely been very promising.”

Upemba's managers hope that the results of the biodiversity studies will eventually enable them to make a strong scientific case for protecting the long-neglected, relatively unknown park. “There are very few pollutants and the water is probably pristine,” says Keates.

  • Clockwise from top left: A ranger at a camp site; Dr Ruffin Mpanga and his assistant Ruth examine one of the camera traps set up on the Kibara Plateau; rangers sitting around a campfire; rangers crossing a bushfire-scorched hilltop.

In the future, the rangers hope to carry out biomonitoring themselves. But for now, protecting against militants and poachers is their most pressing task. In some of the park's remote river valleys, militants linked to Bakata Katanga continue to hold sway. Lain says about 45 percent of Upemba is under control, but that number could rise as new rangers are trained, he says.

Sudden outbreaks of violence can occur. Two rangers have been killed this year: one in the early morning attack on the camp in January and another in June.

Musimi, the survivor of January attack, says he is proud of the direction the park is taking and describes the rebels as destroyers. “This is a national park and they cannot take what they want,” says the ranger. “That is the only wealth we have.”

You can find more reports on extinction here. Follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston And Patrick Greenfield on X (formerly known as Twitter) for all the latest news and features

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