Victor van Straelen, Jean-Marie Derscheid and Jean Massart were few of the early 1920s European conservationists who pushed for the establishment of a conservation area in the northeastern Belgian Congo. As the first protected area in the Congo, Albert National Park was created in April 1925 with the intention of researching and protecting the local fauna as well as the hunter-gatherer African Pygmies. Derscheid led the first Belgian mapping trip of Albert National Park in 1926, which covered a 500 km2 region involving Mount Karisimbi and Mount Mikeno, two dormant volcanoes. Virunga National Park, which included the Virunga Mountains, a portion of the Rutshuru Territory, and the lowlands south of Lake Edward, expanded the protected area in 1929.

Its original area of 2,920.98 km2 has moderately enlarged all over the years. Through this process, local people surrendered their ancestral ownership of land and were forced to leave the designated region. About 85,000 Rwandophones were relocated in 1930s and 1955 to the nearby town of Masisi in North Kivu.

As the regulatory organization for national parks in the Belgian Congo, the Institut des Parcs Nationaux du Congo Belge was established in 1934.Belgian experts made several trips to Albert National Park during the start of the 1930s and 1961, the second of which was led by Gaston-François de Witte. They investigated the local ethnic communities, gathered zoological specimens of fauna for the Musée Royal d’Histoire Naturelle de Belgique, researched volcanic activity, and discovered dinosaurs.

The park’s gorillas were feared to be in danger when Tutsi nomads and their livestock came in the late 1950s, depleting their natural surroundings up to an elevation of 3,000 m (9,800 ft).
After Belgian Congo gained independence as the Republic of the Congo in the 1960s, land rules were changed, largely to the detriment of the local populace, and the land was proclaimed state property. Inside of protected zones, unlawful hunting grew.

After Congo’s independence in 1960, the Park was renamed Virunga National Park in 1969. It was later recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. The following years, Congo has had various civil unrests in and outside the Park which aroused competition for the Park’s natural riches.
In 2008, the Virunga foundation also known as the Africa Conservation foundation together with Congolese National Parks Authority (Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature ICCN) agreed to manage the Park. Virunga National Park is under UNESCO and ICCN’s administration.
2011 saw the granting of permission to the British business Soco International for the extraction of crude oil around and within the national park. While park administration opposed the exploration efforts by Soco International mission members, government authorities didn’t. Emmanuel de Mérode, the park’s chief warden, was attacked in April 2014 as tensions rose. Following worldwide outcry, the business ceased its exploration efforts and agreed to forgo beginning comparable operations near World Heritage sites.

In 2015 Virunga Belgique foundation was formed with major purpose of raising funds and sensitize the public about Virunga National Park. By 2016, four hydroelectric dams had been built, benefiting more than 200,000 rural residents and supplying electricity to small enterprises.