Kahuzi-Biega National Park protects the single most important remaining wild population of the eastern lowland gorilla, also known as Grauer’s gorilla, the largest of all gorilla subspecies and one found nowhere else on Earth in anything close to comparable numbers. Established in 1970 by Belgian conservationist Adrien Deschryver and named after its two extinct volcanoes, Mount Kahuzi and Mount Biega, the park has long stood as one of the most scientifically and ecologically significant conservation sites anywhere in Central Africa. As with much of eastern DRC, however, an honest account of Kahuzi-Biega in 2026 has to address the impact of the M23 conflict directly, since the rebel movement’s capture of Bukavu, the provincial capital sitting directly on the park’s eastern boundary, in early 2026 has seriously and severely disrupted both conservation operations and tourism access alike.
A Park of Two Distinct Ecosystems
Kahuzi-Biega spans roughly 6,000 square kilometers, dropping from high-altitude bamboo forest and Afromontane habitat around its namesake volcanoes down into dense Congo Basin lowland rainforest further west, one of the largest remaining tracts of pristine tropical forest in the entire Albertine Rift region. This range of habitat is part of what makes the park such a critical conservation site, supporting both the eastern lowland gorillas concentrated in the park’s highland sector, closer to Bukavu, and a wealth of lowland forest species in the more remote western reaches that few visitors, even during stable periods, ever had the opportunity to properly explore.
The park’s highland sector, historically the most accessible for tourism, sits a relatively short drive from Bukavu, making Kahuzi-Biega one of the more logistically straightforward great ape trekking destinations in the DRC before the current instability, a notable contrast to Virunga’s more remote positioning further north near Goma. This relative accessibility, once conditions allow it to matter again, is part of what made the park an appealing option for travelers who wanted a Congo gorilla trekking experience without the additional time and cost of reaching Virunga’s more isolated northern sectors.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site Since 1980
Kahuzi-Biega was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980, recognition of its exceptional biodiversity and its role protecting the eastern lowland gorilla, a subspecies whose overall population has declined by an estimated 80 percent over the past few decades due to sustained poaching pressure, ongoing habitat loss, and repeated, overlapping periods of armed conflict across the region it calls home. Like Virunga, Kahuzi-Biega has also been listed as a World Heritage Site in Danger, a designation that reflects just how precarious conservation work in this specific part of the DRC has remained across multiple overlapping crises since the 1990s.
Beyond Gorillas: A Wider Biodiversity Story
While eastern lowland gorillas are Kahuzi-Biega’s best-known residents, the park’s forest also supports chimpanzees, forest elephants, and a range of smaller primates including several monkey species found across the Congo Basin. The park’s bird checklist runs past 350 recorded species, reflecting the sheer range of habitat within its boundaries, from high montane forest and bamboo zones to dense lowland rainforest. Botanists and researchers have long valued Kahuzi-Biega as one of the least disturbed examples of Albertine Rift highland-to-lowland forest transition remaining anywhere in the region, a scientific significance that exists entirely independent of the park’s more famous gorilla trekking tourism and that continues to make Kahuzi-Biega a genuine priority conservation site among international researchers, funders, and conservation biologists worldwide regardless of current visitor access levels.
The Current Situation in 2026
The M23 rebel movement’s expansion into South Kivu province and its capture of Bukavu in early 2026 has had a direct and serious impact on Kahuzi-Biega, given the park’s proximity to the city. Reports from the region describe a breakdown in the infrastructure that previously supported both conservation patrols and tourism operations, alongside a documented rise in illegal logging, charcoal production, and poaching pressure in areas where government or conservation authority control has weakened. This mirrors the pattern seen at Virunga further north, where conflict has repeatedly undermined years of patient conservation progress in a matter of months. The parallel between the two parks is not coincidental; both sit along the same volatile eastern edge of the DRC where the interests of armed groups, mineral resources, and some of Central Africa’s most important remaining wilderness have collided repeatedly over the past three decades.
Given this ongoing regional instability, travel advisories from most Western governments currently recommend firmly against any travel to South Kivu province, and responsible, established tour operators are not currently booking any gorilla trekking trips into Kahuzi-Biega whatsoever. Some older sources online, written before Bukavu’s capture, describe the park as a viable and even relatively accessible alternative to Virunga; that assessment no longer reflects conditions on the ground as of 2026, and travelers should treat any such claims with real caution until the situation demonstrably stabilizes and is confirmed through current, reliable sources rather than older content that has simply not been updated since Bukavu’s capture.
What a Visit Involved Before the Disruption
In more stable periods, a Kahuzi-Biega gorilla trek typically began with a short drive from Bukavu into the park’s highland sector, followed by a guided hike, generally shorter and less physically demanding than mountain gorilla treks in Rwanda or Uganda, to reach one of several habituated eastern lowland gorilla families. Because the terrain here is gentler than the steep volcanic slopes of the Virunga Massif, and because the park’s habituated groups were often found relatively close to the trailhead, Kahuzi-Biega had a reputation among past visitors as a slightly less strenuous, though equally rewarding, gorilla trekking experience. Permits historically cost considerably less than equivalent permits in Rwanda, part of a broader pattern across DRC’s parks of pricing tourism more accessibly than its neighbors in an effort to rebuild visitor numbers after decades of instability. A typical itinerary combined a night or two in Bukavu, a city known for its scenic position on Lake Kivu and its distinctive colonial-era architecture, with a day trip into the park for the gorilla trek itself, and some operators paired the visit with a boat crossing or drive along the lake toward Rwanda, making Kahuzi-Biega a natural add-on for travelers already exploring Rwanda’s side of the border and its own well-established gorilla trekking circuit around Volcanoes National Park further to the north.
Looking Forward
Kahuzi-Biega’s conservation staff and the broader network of organizations supporting Grauer’s gorilla protection have weathered previous periods of regional instability, and the park’s gorilla population, while diminished from historic levels, has continued to receive dedicated protection efforts even through very difficult conditions. Travelers hoping to eventually trek eastern lowland gorillas should watch for the same signals worth monitoring for Virunga: official reopening announcements, changes in government travel advisories for South Kivu, and confirmation from established regional operators that conditions have genuinely stabilized. In the meantime, travelers drawn specifically to gorilla trekking can find comparably profound, currently safe and bookable experiences with mountain gorillas in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, both of which continue to operate without the disruption currently affecting eastern DRC’s parks.
It is worth noting that Kahuzi-Biega’s gorillas are a genetically and physically distinct subspecies from the mountain gorillas found in Rwanda and Uganda, generally larger in overall body size and with slightly different social structures and dietary patterns adapted specifically to lowland rather than high-altitude montane forest habitat. Travelers with a serious interest in primatology or gorilla conservation specifically may find this distinction meaningful enough to keep Kahuzi-Biega on a long-term travel wish list even while it remains inaccessible, treating a future visit as a genuinely different experience from mountain gorilla trekking rather than simply a substitute for it.
Organizations supporting great ape conservation across the DRC, including the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and various partners working directly with Congolese park authorities, continue to fund anti-poaching patrols and monitoring work in and around Kahuzi-Biega even during the current disruption, similar to the ongoing support structures sustaining Virunga through its own closure. Travelers looking for a meaningful way to engage with the park’s conservation story while a visit remains off the table can look into supporting these organizations directly, a concrete way to contribute to the park’s long-term survival regardless of when tourism itself is able to resume.
Congolese park rangers at Kahuzi-Biega, much like their counterparts at Virunga, have historically continued working to protect the park’s gorillas and broader ecosystem through periods of extreme personal danger, often with limited resources and without reliable pay during the most disrupted stretches of ongoing regional conflict. Their continued commitment, even amid the current instability following Bukavu’s capture, reflects a level of dedication to conservation that deserves recognition independent of whether or when international tourism is able to return to support their work financially. Understanding this human dimension, real people risking real safety to protect one of the world’s rarest great apes, adds important context to any discussion of the park’s current closure that goes well beyond simple logistics or the mechanics of booking availability.
