Boma–Badingilo Migratory Landscape

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Boma–Badingilo Migratory Landscape: A Unique Terrestrial Mammal Migration Site in South Sudan

The Boma–Badingilo Migratory Landscape, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2026, is a remarkable natural wonder situated in the heart of South Sudan. This expansive property, encompassing Boma National Park, Badingilo National Park, and the surrounding floodplain and savanna landscapes, offers a unique insight into the intricate balance between ecology, migration, and human culture.

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UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site

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.

UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site

Criterion (vii): The Boma–Badingilo Migratory Landscape contains one of, if not, the world's most spectacular remaining wildlife migrations. Each year, an estimate six million White-Eared Kob, Tiang and Mongalla Gazelle move across vast floodplains, wetlands and savannas in response to seasonal flooding and changing resource availability. The scale of the migration, extraordinary numbers of animals involved and the largely intact landscape through which it occurs combine to create an exceptional natural phenomenon of global significance, representing one of the last remaining wildlife spectacles of its kind.

Criterion (ix): The Boma–Badingilo Migratory Landscape is an outstanding example of ongoing ecological and biological processes associated with large-scale ungulate migration in a seasonally dynamic savanna ecosystem. The interaction between seasonal flooding, corresponding vegetation productivity and associated wildlife movements sustains what is likely to be the largest remaining terrestrial migration of land mammals in the world. The migration system facilitates ecological connectivity across extensive floodplains, wetlands and grasslands and supports ecological processes that have become increasingly rare as comparable migration systems elsewhere have been fragmented or lost.

Criterion (x): The property contains significant habitats for the in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including globally important populations of migratory ungulates and numerous threatened species. The BBML supports globally significant populations of White-Eared Kob, Tiang and Mongalla Gazelle together with important populations of Nile Lechwe, African Savanna Elephant, African Wild Dog, Lion, Leopard, Northeastern Africa Cheetah, Beisa Oryx and other species of conservation importance. The extensive and relatively intact floodplain and savanna ecosystems also provide habitat for important assemblages of waterbirds, raptors and migratory bird species associated with the Upper Nile Basin and migratory flyways. The size, ecological connectivity and habitat diversity of the property contribute significantly to its importance for biodiversity conservation within the East Sudanian Savanna and the greater Nile Basin region.

Encyclopedia Record: Bandingilo National Park

The Bandingilo National Park, sometimes spelled Badingilo, is a national park located in South Sudan's Equatoria region. The park covered the erstwhile states of Central Equatoria and Eastern Equatoria. It was established in 1992. Situated in a wooded area near the White Nile river, it is over 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 sq mi) in size. It also contains large marshlands stretching up into Jonglei state.

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