Central Africa
The Congo Basin holds the world's second-largest tropical forest. Some of the highest per-capita wildlife tourism revenues on the continent are generated here, against the backdrop of structural state fragility, transboundary conflict and a conservation-finance economy increasingly managed by foreign-registered foundations. The Corridor's Central Africa desk launches with Issue 013 on the Virunga model and the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor.
Virunga is the world's most defended national park. That defence is the tourism economy.
A Belgian foundation has received more than $180 million from the European Union to manage Africa's oldest national park on behalf of the Congolese state. In May 2025 it was granted management of an additional 550,000 square kilometres — an area nearly the size of Kenya — under the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor agreement. More than 200 rangers have died defending the park since its founding. The model is being scaled before it has been tested.
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