Maiko National Park is a national park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and covers 10,885 km2. The park consists of rainforest and spans three provinces: North-Kivu, Orientale and Maniema. Maiko National Park is home to several endemic mammals such as gorillas, okapis and Congo peafowl. It is also an important refuge for African forest elephants, eastern chimpanzees and the endemic aquatic genet.
The park was originally a hunting reserve during colonial times and in 1970 it became a national park. Due to its isolated position with inaccessible roads in the region, the park was home to groups of Simba Rebels which fled to the park in 1964, where they practiced poaching and illegal mining. Due to their presence and also the presence of other rebel groups, conservation has been very difficult, meaning the ICCN has little to no control over Maiko National Park. There have been several explorations of Maiko National park by the WCS, ICCN, WWF and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Research shows that Maiko is highly endangered, although it is an important reservoir of endemic and rare species. There currently is intense poaching and mining going on in the park.
Maiko National Park Expedition
Maiko National Park is a very isolated park where you cannot just go like that. Don’t be fooled by websites such as www.maikonationalpark.com which have no affiliation with the park or presence in the country. These websites often are located in Uganda and Rwanda and have never set a foot in Congo, other than maybe Virunga. Other than a few expeditions by researchers and NGO’s the park has been little explored, other than locals. As we work closely with the ministry of tourism and ICCN and also have a good network in the area, we are the only local professional agency which is capable of setting up this tour to Maiko National Park. It takes around two to three days to get from Kisangani to the base of our expedition. From there we will change our 4×4 for a boat and we will enter Maiko National Park by boat to explore the park on foot and by boat. Please, let us know if you’re interested in going here. It will cost at least 30.000 usd or more to set up this expedition. We need enough time to prepare this travel in order to get all the necessary permits.
