Boma-Gambella Transboundary National Park

Gambela National Park (GNP) (4,575 km²) – the largest protected area in Ethiopia – is located in south western Ethiopia adjacent to the border with South Sudan. Located south of Gambela and lying close to the Ethiopia border is South Sudan’s Boma National Park, about five times the size of GNP (22,800 km²). The two parks feature a vast collection of savannahs, rivers and associated flood plains, riverine forests and grasslands and a number of wildlife species like the Nile lechwe and white-eared kob not found in other protected areas in the region.

The Boma-Gambella Transboundary National Park Project is one of nine medium to long-term priority projects identified by the Eastern Nile states under the Integrated Water Resources Development and Management Plan for the Baro-Akobo-Sobat Sub-basin in the Eastern Nile region. This project aims at ensuring a more effective protection of the two existing national parks, securing a migration corridor for large mammals like giraffes, elephants and white eared kobs, and reducing the paching of wildlife, through cooperation between Ethiopia and South Sudan. The project will facilitate the designating of the Boma and Gambella national parks as one transboundary national park to strengthen transboundary cooperation and provide for their effective protection. Other project components include the physical demarcation of the boundaries of the two parks, and capacity building for park officials from the two countries. Preliminary activities have already been implemented as part of the project of transboundary cooperation between South Sudan and Ethiopia led by the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre (HoA-REC) for the cooperative management of Boma and Gambella national parks.

The project identification was completed in 2017 with funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB) under the Baro-Akobo-Sobat multipurpose water resources development study project.

Gambela National Park (GNP) (4,575 km²) – the largest protected area in Ethiopia – is located in south western Ethiopia adjacent to the border with South Sudan. Located south of Gambela and lying close to the Ethiopia border is South Sudan’s Boma National Park, about five times the size of GNP (22,800 km²). The two parks feature a vast collection of savannahs, rivers and associated flood plains, riverine forests and grasslands and a number of wildlife species like the Nile lechwe and white-eared kob not found in other protected areas in the region.

The Boma-Gambella Transboundary National Park Project is one of nine medium to long-term priority projects identified by the Eastern Nile states under the Integrated Water Resources Development and Management Plan for the Baro-Akobo-Sobat Sub-basin in the Eastern Nile region. This project aims at ensuring a more effective protection of the two existing national parks, securing a migration corridor for large mammals like giraffes, elephants and white eared kobs, and reducing the paching of wildlife, through cooperation between Ethiopia and South Sudan. The project will facilitate the designating of the Boma and Gambella national parks as one transboundary national park to strengthen transboundary cooperation and provide for their effective protection. Other project components include the physical demarcation of the boundaries of the two parks, and capacity building for park officials from the two countries. Preliminary activities have already been implemented as part of the project of transboundary cooperation between South Sudan and Ethiopia led by the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre (HoA-REC) for the cooperative management of Boma and Gambella national parks.

The project identification was completed in 2017 with funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB) under the Baro-Akobo-Sobat multipurpose water resources development study project.