Upemba national park had virtually all its large mammals poached, but it is coming back (below is a 3 minute video about this decline).
Just a couple of years ago, 16 members of the Bakata Katanga militia suprised a party of 4 rangers within the park (close to the Upemba base camp). Lying in the south-east of the DRC, this reserve once teamed with life. Tens of thousands of elephants, alongside lins zebra and many other species roamed free.
A mosaic of savannah, wetland and gallery forests, the militia took hold in 1998. Apart from making large parts of the park unsafe for rangers to visit, they also poached much of the park out of existence (after more than a decade, the rangers were also forced to poach to survive as well). By the late 2000s, only 150 elephants were left, the local zebra population was only 35 , and the lions had been extirpated. This sort of thing has also occurred in Virungas, but Upemba (without any gorillas) is often able to slide under the radar (though saying that, Upemba was one of the last places to see lions in the country, so with recovery many could well return.
The elephant herd is back to 210, and the zebra number is over 200. Other animals like baboon, and Oribi (a type of antelope) can be found when walking through the park.
They are working towards bringing the Congo lion back to this reserve. However, poaching remains a problem, with abandoned camps regularly found, and occasional campfire smoke showing where a camp is currently operating.
Can reserves like this return to their former glory? Will we see a time where local villages live better, because of the tourism jobs that spring from local visitors, or will this end up being another forgotten corner of Africa? There are continued threats, from a exploration black for oil, which covers the park, to a large road that will skirt the boundary, to extract lithium from elsewhere.
Lets not loose this amazing place
