ABSTRACT
The Virunga National Park (VNP) (0°55´N, 1°35´S and 29°10´E, 30°00´E) is that spectacular blend of vast grasslands, high plateaus and towering high mountains and peaks, many of them covered with eternal snowcaps or rumbling with volcanic activities, that surrounds the northern part of the Albertine Rift Valley from just south of Lake Albert in the north to the scenic city of Goma on the northernmost tip of Lake Kivu in the south. All this dreamland, entirely located within Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) territory, stretches about 500km along the country’s north-eastern border with Rwanda and Uganda (Diallo, 1975; Tazieff, 1979; Charlier, 1998; Stuart and Stuart, 1995).
