In the early 1920s, several proponents of the European conservation movement championed the idea of creating a protected area in northeastern Belgian Congo, among them Victor van Straelen, Jean Massart and Jean-Marie Derscheid. When Albert National Park was established in April 1925 as the Congo's first national park, it was conceived as a science-oriented nature reserve with the aim of studying and preserving wildlife and so-called "primitive" hunter-gatherer African Pygmies. In 1926, Derscheid headed the first Belgian mission to map Albert National Park, which encompassed an area of 500 km2 (190 sq mi) around the extinct volcanoes Mount Karisimbi and Mount Mikeno. The protected area was extended in 1929 by Virunga National Park, which encompassed the Virunga Mountains, parts of the Rutshuru Territory, and the plains south of Lake Edward. Its initial size of 2,920.98 km2 (1,127.80 sq mi) was enlarged step by step in subsequent years.[1][2][3][4] Indigenous people lost their traditional land rights in this process, and were evicted from the protected area.[3][5] Between the late 1930s and 1955, an estimated 85,000 Rwandophone people were moved to nearby Masisi in North Kivu.[6]

In 1934, the Institut des Parcs Nationaux du Congo Belge was founded as the governing body for national parks in the Belgian Congo.[1] Between the early 1930s and 1961, several expeditions to Albert National Park were carried out by Belgian scientists, the second headed by Gaston-François de Witte. They studied and collected zoological specimens of wildlife for the Musée Royal d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique;[7][8] explored the ethnic groups in this area;[9] studied volcanic activity,[10] and fossils.[11]

In the late 1950s, Tutsi herders and their cattle entered the park, destroying natural habitat up to an altitude of 3,000 m (9,800 ft), which was thought to threaten the park's gorillas.[12]

Land laws were reformed in the 1960s after Belgian Congo became independent as the Republic of the Congo, and the land declared property of the state, much to the disadvantage of local people. Illegal hunting inside protected areas increased.[5] In 1969, the two parks were merged under the name Virunga National Park, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.[13]

In 1996, the national park was listed as a Ramsar site of international importance.[13]

In 2011, the British company Soco International was granted a concession for extracting crude oil in the surroundings of and in large parts of the national park. Government officials supported exploration activities by Soco International mission members, whereas park management opposed. In the course of increasing tensions, the park's chief warden, Emmanuel de Mérode, was assailed in April 2014.[14] Following international protests, the company stopped exploring activities and consented to refrain from starting similar operations in the vicinity of World Heritage sites.[15][16][17][18]

By 2016, four hydropower dams were constructed that provide electricity to small businesses and benefit more than 200,000 rural people.[19]

Since the early 1990s, the protected area was impacted by political turmoil in the African Great Lakes region. Following the Rwandan genocide, thousands of refugees fled to the Kivu region, and the presence of military increased. The First and Second Congo Wars further destabilised the region. Anti-poaching patrols inside the park were obstructed, and park personnel and wildlife were killed.[20] About 850,000 refugees lived around the national park in 1994. Up to 40,000 people entered the park daily in search of firewood and food, and deforested huge areas.[21] In 1994, Virunga National Park was entered into the List of World Heritage in Danger.[20]

After the Second Congo War was over, confrontations between park personnel and rebel groups continued; 80 park staff were killed between 1996 and 2003.[21] Several armed rebel groups operate in the park, including Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda and National Congress for the Defence of the People (FDLR).[13] Latter controlled the Mikeno sector of Virunga National Park between December 2006 and January 2009.[22]

In 2005, the European Commission (EC) recommended a public-private partnership between the country's government and the British non-governmental organisation African Conservation Fund. The latter organisation is responsible for park management since 2010; about 80% of management costs are subsidised by the EC. Park protection efforts were militarised in the following years to deter armed rebel groups and poachers from operating inside the park.[14] Park personnel are given paramilitary training and high-quality weaponry, and operate together with the military and state security services.[23]

These tactics, criticised as "militarization of conservation", has been blamed for further violence and dispossession faced by local indigenous people. Communities, such as the Mbuti, which previously relied on the lands included in the park for food and shelter have been forced out, or risk being arrested or killed by armed park rangers.[24]

Increasing militarisation of nature conservation has been accused of fuelling armed mobilisation of militias. The inhabitants inside the national park, whether native or refugees, rely on farming, hunting, fishing, logging and producing charcoal for their livelihoods, all prohibited activities. The local community has no where else to turn for security, and relies on the protection of armed groups, for which fees are levied off the prohibited activities. According to a 2010 report by the United Nations Security Council, 80% of the charcoal consumed by the city of Goma is sourced from the park, representing an annual value of US$28–30 million. Both state security services and such groups also resort to armed robberies and kidnapping for income.[23]

Efforts at nature conservation have had contradictory effects, for example when farms were destroyed within Kibirizi, and soldiers and park guards were sent in to patrol, people migrated even further within the park to land controlled by the FDLR, where they could rent small plots of land. Clashes occurred in 2015 when a local Mai-Mai group in Binza (north Bwisha) attempted to take back control of region, with the objective of reinstalling fishing activities and allowing the population to return, killing a park guard and 11-15 soldiers.[23]

Five rangers were killed in August 2017 near Lake Edward in a militia attack. Five rangers and a driver were killed in April 2018.[25] Since beginning of the armed conflict, armed groups killed 175 park rangers until April 2018.[26] In May 2018, a ranger was killed when defending two tourists who were kidnapped.[27] They were subsequently released unharmed. As a consequence, the park remained closed to visitors from June 2018[28] until February 2019.[29]

In April 2020 at least 12 park rangers were killed by militia men attacking a civilian convoy.[30] Again in January 2021, armed men killed at least six rangers and wounded several others in an ambush in the national park.[31][32]

On 22 February 2021, Italy's ambassador to the DRC who was travelling with the World Food Programme about 15km north of Goma, Luca Attanasio, as well as Italian military police officer Vittorio Iacovacci and Congolese driver Moustapha Milambo, were killed in the gunfire when a militia that had kidnapped their convoy, and had brought them into the park, was met by park rangers who managed to free four people.[33]