Boma–Badingilo Migratory Landscape

What UNESCO says

UNESCO describes the property in these words: “The property comprises Boma National Park, Badingilo National Park, and the surrounding floodplain and savanna landscapes in South Sudan. Located at the interface between the Sudd wetland system and the East Sudanian Savanna, it encompasses an extensive mosaic of seasonally flooded grasslands, wetlands, floodplains, woodlands, and savannas shaped by seasonal rainfall and flood dynamics. These interconnected ecosystems sustain one of the world’s largest remaining terrestrial mammal migrations, with an estimated six million White-eared Kob, Tiang, and Mongalla Gazelle moving across a vast and largely unimpeded landscape in response to changing environmental conditions. The site also reflects important cultural, and linguistic diversity of the region with the Murle, Dinka, Nuer, Anyuak and Toposa and other ethnic groups who have been custodians of this landscape through herding, farming and fishing for centuries and even millennia. The property also supports important populations of numerous large mammal species, including Nile Lechwe, African Savanna Elephant, African Wild Dog, Lion, Leopard, Northeastern Africa Cheetah, and Beisa Oryx, as well as significant assemblages of waterbirds, raptors, and migratory bird species. Its exceptional scale, ecological connectivity, habitat diversity, and relative intactness sustain ecological and biological processes that have become increasingly rare globally.”[1]

Inscribed

2026[1]

Category

Natural[1]

Criteria

vii, ix, x[1]

Area

11,236,800 hectares[1]

In Danger

on UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger (since 2026)[1]

Background

Boma National Park is in eastern South Sudan near the Ethiopian border. Wikipedia says it was established in 1977 and covers 22,800 km² of grasslands and floodplains.[2] The article describes the world's largest annual animal migration, the Great Nile Migration Landscape, in which antelope such as Bohor reedbuck, tiang and white-eared kob move between Bandingilo and Boma National Parks.[2] It says African Parks signed a 10-year renewable agreement with the government of South Sudan in August 2022 to restore the two parks, and that in July 2026 UNESCO designated the Boma–Badingilo Migratory Landscape and listed it as endangered.[2]

The migration, as reported at the 2026 listing

Daily Maverick reported on 28 July 2026 that the landscape was listed on 26 July 2026, South Sudan's first World Heritage site, and added at the same time to the list in danger. It is an 11-million-hectare area incorporating Boma and Badingilo national parks and wildlife corridors, stretching from Juba toward the Sudd wetland and the Ethiopian border.[3]

More than six million antelope, including white-eared kob, tiang, Mongalla gazelle and Bohor reedbuck, migrate there each year, which the report calls the largest remaining land mammal migration on Earth. The landscape also supports Nile lechwe, elephants, wild dogs, lions, leopards and cheetahs.[3]

The threats named are armed conflict, commercial poaching for bushmeat, infrastructure such as the Juba–Bor road, which is said to ease commercial hunting, and possible oil and mining. The park operator African Parks' chief executive, Peter Fearnhead, said very few landscapes of this scale remain.[3]