The Réserve Naturelle du Sankuru (RNSA) was created by ministerial decree on 6 November 2007, with an area of 30,570 square kilometres (11,800 sq mi).

It won the first REDD+ (Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) contract in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[2] The Lomela River flows in a northwest direction from the Sankuru Nature Reserve and across the Salonga National Park.

[3] The Tshuapa rises in the southeast of the Sankuru Nature Reserve and meanders north-northwest and then west-northwest direction to its confluence with the Lomela River.

Satellite imagery shows that the reserve continues to steadily lose forest coverage.