Marco Lambertini, WWF Director General visits Salonga

From 11 to 19 February 2022, WWF-DRC had the honour of receiving a visit from Marco Lambertini, the Director General of WWF International. This visit to the DRC was an opportunity for several exchanges with WWF’s financial and technical partners in the country as well as the DRC governmental authorities.
Mr. Lambertini’s visit was also an opportunity for him to visit Salonga National Park, accompanied by Mr. Olivier Mushiete, Director General of the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) and Ms Britta Oltmann, Country Representative of KfW, the German development bank, one of the Park’s main donors.
In October 2021, ICCN and WWF entered into a new partnership agreement to manage the Park, continuing a collaboration that began in 2016, and this was the first opportunity for the two Directors to see in person the amazing landscape that they have committed to protect.
During the various meetings DG Lambertini had with administrative authorities, local communities and representatives of various stakeholders in Salonga, he emphasised WWF’s conservation approach for the mutual benefit of nature and local populations.
This approach integrates biodiversity conservation and the socio-economic development of communities to ensure that they really benefit from the park, which shall be managed with their full participation.