Historic designation recognizes the global importance of the landscape that sustains the world’s largest known terrestrial mammal migration

The Boma–Badingilo Migratory Landscape has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, becoming the first World Heritage Site in the history of South Sudan. The landmark designation recognizes the outstanding global significance of one of Africa’s largest remaining intact wilderness landscapes and the extraordinary wildlife migration it supports.

Stretching across Boma National Park, Badingilo National Park and the wildlife corridors connecting them, the UNESCO-listed landscape encompasses nearly 30 million acres of savannas, seasonal floodplains, wetlands and woodlands. It supports what may be the world’s largest antelope migration.

A comprehensive aerial survey released in 2024 estimated that approximately six million antelope move through the ecosystem in response to seasonal rainfall. The immense herds include White-eared Kob, Tiang, Mongalla Gazelle and Bohor Reedbuck traveling along ancient routes extending across South Sudan and into neighboring Ethiopia.

“This historic recognition of Africa’s youngest nation’s first World Heritage Site is not only merited but powerful,” said Rainforest Trust CEO James Deutsch. “It will get out the message that South Sudan hosts the Earth’s largest known migration of mammals—more than six million White-eared Kob, Tiang, and Mongalla Gazelle that range across one of Africa’s greatest wilderness areas, the Boma–Badingilo Landscape. I take particular pleasure in this because my PhD was on a sister species, Uganda kob, and I was instrumental in the early noughts in rediscovering this great migration and pushing for its protection and recognition. Today, Rainforest Trust is proud to support African Parks in this wonderful work.”

Supporting Long-term Protection Across the Landscape

Rainforest Trust is supporting African Parks in collaboration with the Government of South Sudan to strengthen protection for the Boma–Badingilo Migratory Landscape. The project seeks to re-establish and expand Boma and Badingilo National Parks and designate the currently unprotected areas between them as Community Conservancies, securing a connected project area of approximately 9.4 million acres.

Protecting the land between the national parks is critical because migratory wildlife cannot survive within isolated protected areas. The animals depend on uninterrupted access to seasonal feeding grounds, water sources and breeding areas across the broader ecosystem. The project is also part of a larger conservation strategy to maintain ecological connectivity with Gambella and Omo National Parks in Ethiopia and other landscapes to the north.

The region provides habitat not only for its vast antelope herds but also for threatened wildlife including the Endangered African Savanna Elephant and Beisa Oryx; Vulnerable Lions, Cheetahs and Giraffes; and the Critically Endangered Nubian Giraffe subspecies.

The World Heritage designation also recognizes the relationship between the landscape and the people who have lived within it for generations. Communities across the region maintain diverse cultural traditions and depend on the landscape for herding, farming, fishing and the sustainable use of natural resources. Local knowledge and community consultation played an important role in developing the UNESCO nomination and shaping a shared vision for the landscape’s future.

UNESCO inscribed Boma–Badingilo through an emergency procedure and simultaneously placed it on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The designation highlights both the landscape’s exceptional value and the urgent threats it faces, including commercial poaching, wildlife trafficking, infrastructure and extractive development, climate change and limited conservation resources.

World Heritage status provides an important international framework for strengthening protection and attracting the technical and financial support needed to secure the landscape’s future. Its long-term survival, however, will depend on continued cooperation among the Government of South Sudan, local and Indigenous communities, traditional authorities and conservation partners. Rainforest Trust is honored to be a partner in this effort.

About Rainforest Trust

Since 1988, Rainforest Trust has been working with partners to safeguard imperiled tropical habitats and threatened species by helping to establish protected and conserved areas in partnership with Indigenous and local organizations and communities. To date, Rainforest Trust has helped protect more than 68 million acres of vital habitat across Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region. Rainforest Trust is a nonprofit organization that relies upon the generous support of the public to successfully implement its important conservation action. The organization is proud of earning a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator.

For media inquiries:

Rainforest Trust, Brynn Garner, brynn.garner@rainforesttrust.org