[1] That reserve has been part of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park since November 1970 when it was established in 1970 by the Belgian photographer and conservationist Adrien Deschryver.

[2] The park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980,[3] under Criterion (x) for its unique habitat of rainforest and diversity of the mammal species, particularly eastern lowland gorillas.

[3] In 1997 the park was put on the List of World Heritage in Danger because of the political instability of the region, an influx of refugees and increasing wildlife exploitation.

Set in both mountainous and lowland terrain, the park lies west of the town of Bukavu in South Kivu Province.

The larger, 5,400 km2 (2,100 sq mi) western part is mainly lowland terrain stretching from Bukavu to Kisangani.

[3] Because of its varied topography and habitat types, Kahuzi-Biega National Park is also a hotspot for plants and endemic vertebrates.

[3] The park's swamps, bogs, marshland and riparian forests on hydromorphic ground at all altitudes are rare worldwide.

Other native bird species include the yellow-crested helmet shrike, Congo peafowl, African green broadbill, and Rockefeller's sunbird.

However, the park's 1975 expansion, which included inhabited lowland areas, resulted in forced evacuations with about 13,000 people of the tribal community of Shi, Tembo and Rega affected and refusing to leave.

[15] In 2022, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights ruled that the Democratic Republic of the Congo violated the human rights of Batwa people according to the African Charter,[16] including by evicting them from ancestral territories without prior consent when the Kahuzi-Biega National Park was created.