South Sudan’s Boma-Badingilo named UNESCO World Heritage Site
This marks South Sudan's first-ever UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Boma-Bandingilo Migratory Landscape was officially inscribed on the World Heritage List during the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee in Busan, South Korea.
Boma Badingilo migratory landscape. (UNESCO)
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There is a new kid on the block in the heritage sites family. Boma-Badingilo, a 10,000-square-kilometre migratory landscape in neighbouring South Sudan, is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The inscription, approved during the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee in Busan, South Korea, marks South Sudan's first entry on the prestigious World Heritage List.
This marks South Sudan's first-ever UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Boma-Bandingilo Migratory Landscape was officially inscribed on the World Heritage List during the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee in Busan, South Korea.
Covering 12 million hectares, the landscape encompasses Boma and Badingilo National Parks and key wildlife corridors. Its nomination was fast-tracked under UNESCO's emergency procedure in response to mounting environmental pressures and urgent conservation threats.
The designation recognises an ecosystem that supports the largest land mammal migration on Earth. Each year, an estimated six million antelope—including white-eared kob, tiang, Mongalla gazelles, and Bohor reedbuck—move across vast savannas, floodplains, and wetlands.
South Sudanese officials and conservation partners, including African Parks, welcomed the designation as a major milestone for nation-building and environmental stewardship in the world's youngest country. They said the listing would strengthen protection of the vast landscape, which faces escalating threats from commercial poaching, illegal wildlife trafficking, regional insecurity, and planned infrastructure projects that could disrupt ancient wildlife migration routes.
Boma and Badingilo are two separate national parks situated along one of Africa's largest mammal migration routes. Although they differ in size and character and are separated by hundreds of kilometres, the parks are linked by the Jonglei Corridor. Together, they safeguard a vast ecosystem that extends north into the Sudd, Africa's largest wetland, covering about 200,000 square kilometres.
Ugandan connection
The Boma-Bandingilo landscape lies about 250 kilometres from Uganda's northern border. It forms part of the Nile Basin, which is shared by 11 countries, including Uganda.
Beyond their shared ecosystems and wildlife species, Uganda and South Sudan also cooperate in the management of the transboundary Kidepo landscape, comprising Kidepo Valley National Park in Uganda and Kidepo Game Reserve in South Sudan.
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Bigger than Serengeti and Okavango Delta
In the region, the Serengeti National Park covering 14,763 square kilometres (5,700 square miles), while the wider protected Serengeti ecological system spans roughly 30,000 square kilometers.
The Okavango Delta, which covers parts of Botswana is an expansive wetland that changes in size from about 15,000 square kilometres in dry times to 22,000 square kilometres in wet times.