The DR of Congo is the second largest country in sub Saharan Africa. It contains within its borders the largest tropical rainforest in the world.

In 1974, the DR of Congo was one of the first countries to ratify the Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Five years later, the Virunga National Park – the first African national park – was inscribed on the World Heritage List (1979). Garamba, Kahuzu-Biega (1980) and Salonga National Park (1984) followed soon after and the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, became a World Heritage site in 1996.

As the war continues and humanitarian conditions deteriorate, so does the environmental situation. In the mineral rich national parks and reserves in the north-eastern section of the DR of Congo, the numbers of lowland gorillas, okapis, and elephants (which are all classified as endangered species), have significantly dropped as miners kill the animals, eat the meat, and sell the ivory tusks of elephants (UNSC 2001: 12). The gorillas are very rare and may be on the brink of extinction. Approximately 140 eastern lowland gorillas remain in Kahuzi-Biega Park, down from 280 in 1996 (ENS 13 April 2001). 4000 out of 12,000 elephants were killed between 1995 and 1999 in a northeastern national park, while only 2 out of 350 elephant families remain in the coltan-rich Kahuzi-Biega Park (UNSC 12).