Okapi Wildlife Reserve - DR Congo

In Danger 1997 to present

Area: 13,700 km²

Inscribed: 1996

Criteria: (x) biodiversity

Values: The Okapi Wildlife Reserve covers about a fifth of the ancient Ituri Forest in north-eastern DRC - an area which survived as rainforest during the last Ice Age, and consequently became a ‘centre of endemism' from which species spread as the climate warmed and forests expanded.  It is an area of exceptionally high biodiversity, with more diurnal primate species than any other African forest (13spp) and a high level of species endemism.  Its main claim to fame, however, is as the home of about 20% of the world's okapi - an extraordinary ‘forest giraffe' only discovered in 1901 and only known from the DRC.  The reserve is inhabited by traditional pygmy hunter-gathering people of the Mbuti and Efe ethnic groups.

Slideshow of Okapi Wildlife Reserve world heritage site

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Links:  Google Earth | UNEP-WCMC Site Description |Official UNESCO Site Details | Birdlife IBA