Dinder National Park is the most important terrestrial protected area in the northern states of Sudan. Located on the Ethiopian border, straddling Blue Nile and Kassala states, it is approximately 10,000 km? in size. The most important features of the park are a series of permanent and seasonal wetlands known locally as mayas, which are linked to streams running off the Ethiopian highlands to the east.

 

The core of the park is comprised of wetlands that are critically important as reliable sources of water in the dry season.

Although many have been poached, the park still supports a significant population of larger mammals.  

The habitat and wildlife of Dinder National Park can currently be described as badly degraded and under serious threat from a number of ongoing problems, including encroachment, habitat degradation and poaching.

Until the 1960s, the area surrounding Dinder was relatively uninhabited. Since then, however, migration and land use changes have resulted in development around the park, to the extent that some forty villages now exist along its borders. Large-scale mechanized agriculture to the north and west has not only pushed traditional agricultural communities to the edge of the park, but by taking over most of the land previously used for grazing, has also led pastoralists to invade the park in large numbers. Livestock compete with wildlife for fodder and water, and transmit diseases such as rinderpest and anthrax, while burning degrades the grassed woodland habitat. Poaching is also a major problem, as is the felling of trees for firewood by trespassers and fires set in the course of honey extraction.

Between 2002 and 2006, the park benefited from a USD 750,000 Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant that resulted in increased capacity for the wildlife force and a well thought out management plan with a strong emphasis on community involvement in the conservation of the park. This funding ceased in early 2006 and the future preservation of the park hangs in the balance. Without further injection of funding by the government or the international community, it is very likely that the gains achieved by the GEF grant will be lost and that degradation will continue.

The infrastructure and staff capacity of Dinder National Park were greatly improved thanks to a grant from the Global Environment Facility, but sufficient and sustainable government funding is urgently needed now that GEF support has come to an end.