The Virunga National Park (hereinafter “the Park”) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It is the most biodiverse protected area on the African continent, home to a plethora of iconic species and landscapes. More than 2,000 premier plant species have been identified, of which 10% are endemic. The Park contains 218 mammal species, 706 bird species, 109 reptile species, and 78 amphibian species. It also serves as a refuge to 22 primate species, including three great apes: the mountain gorilla, the eastern lowland gorilla (Grauer’s gorilla), and the eastern chimpanzee, hosting a third of the world’s mountain gorilla population. The savannah zones of the Park contain a diverse population of ungulates, and the density of wildlife biomass is among the highest on Earth.

However, the Park faces significant conservation challenges due to the protracted war in the eastern DRC, where millions have been killed, and millions more have been displaced since the 1990s. Currently, several armed groups are active in and around the Park, including M23 (supported by the Rwanda Defence Force), Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), and Mai Mai, among others. These groups engage in criminal activities such as charcoal trafficking, illegal fishing, illegal agriculture, poaching for ivory and bush meat, kidnapping, and extortion through barriers and taxes.

The Park has been on the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger since 1994. This List aims to inform the international community of conditions threatening the characteristics for which a property was inscribed on the World Heritage List and to encourage corrective action. Sites on this List should be the highest priority for conservation action within the World Heritage Convention. According to the 2020 conservation assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Virunga National Park is one of the 18 sites with a critical conservation outlook.

The Intervention “Restoring the natural and economic value of Virunga National Park” is financed under the Multi-Annual Indicative Programme of the Thematic Programme “Civil Society Organisations and Local Authorities 2014-2020.” It contributes to Priority 1, focusing on the country-level contributions of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Local Authorities to governance and development, and to the Commission’s efforts to work more closely with foundations in the area of development cooperation. The Intervention was awarded through a direct grant without a Call for Proposals. It is implemented by Re:wild, a US-based foundation, as the lead applicant, and the Virunga Foundation as co-applicant. Since 2005, the Virunga Foundation has been focused on protecting wildlife in the Park in partnership with the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN). In 2015, the ICCN and the Virunga Foundation entered into a public-private partnership for the Park's management, running until 2040. Re:wild has supported the Park’s conservation efforts for several years.