Boma National Park

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The Boma National Park is located in the east of South Sudan , in the state of Jonglei , near the Ethiopian border. It was declared a national park in 1979 and established in 1981 over an area of ​​22,800 km². The park is at an altitude of 400 to 1100  m . The annual precipitation decreases from 1200 mm to 600 mm in the south.

Geography and livestock

The next bigger place is Pibor Post in the northwest of the park. Two thirds of the area in the west is flat grassland on the foothills of the Sudd , or the headwaters and tributaries of the Pibor , which can be partially flooded during the rainy season from April to December. The area is crossed by many rivers. The individual mountains adjoining eastward to the Ethiopian border are covered by light forest. Combretum and fig bushes grow .

The park was originally set up for a species of antelope, the white-eared bog antelope ( Kobus leucotis ); also for the tiang (Damaliscus tiang) , a type of lyre antelope , and for buffalo , Mongalla gazelles , elephants and leopards . In addition, here are giraffes , zebras , gemsbok , hartebeest and elephants before. There are also predators such as cheetahs . In 2008, the highest biodiversity of mammals in Sudan was found in Boma National Park.

Political situation

The park was included as a combat area in the Sudanese civil war . Since South Sudan governed itself in the course of the peace agreement with Khartoum in 2005, it is unclear in what form the Boma National Park will be restored. Numerous animals fled to Ethiopia during the civil war, while others were used as food. Negative effects on the park are the lack of infrastructure, which complicates any surveillance, internally displaced persons displaced by the civil war, some of whom settle in the park, loggers in search of raw materials that have been scarce for decades, and hunters equipped with war weapons. The Gambela National Park , located a little north on the Ethiopian side, is similarly threatened . A development for tourism is not yet in sight.

In July 2008, a contract was signed between Al Ain National Wildlife , a company in the United Arab Emirates , and the Ministry of Wildlife of South Sudan for a 1.68 million hectare tourism project within the Boma National Park. Al Ain began construction in 2009, and by August 2011 an airstrip and several guest houses were completed. The residents of the region were not involved in the negotiations and the development of the project. 10,000 to 15,000 people are to be resettled for the implementation of the tourism project.

literature

  • Wally and Horst Hagen: The African national parks as habitats for elephants . In: Vitus B. Dröscher (1990): Save the Elephants of Africa (pp. 232–233)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Amun: Bushmeat Field Assessment from Boma National Park in Southern Sudan. BEAN Bushmeat Factsheet 2009 ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.frameweb.org
  2. ^ Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa. Country Report: South Sudan. The Oakland Institute, 2011, pp. 33-35

Coordinates: 6 ° 9 ′ 0 ″  N , 33 ° 46 ′ 48 ″  E