Year of the Gorilla Opens With Hope for Virunga Park Gorillas

Virunga National Park director, Emmanuel de Merode, successfully negotiated with Nkunda and got confirmation that Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature, ICCN, would be allowed to reenter and work in the southern part of the park, according to the global conservation organization WWF.

In September 2007, ICCN, the government institution in charge of protected areas management, as well as the park rangers and their families were forced out of the park.

At that time, Nkunda and his army took control of several parts of the park including the areas where mountain gorillas are found. Since then, no one outside of Nkunda's army has been allowed to monitor the gorillas.

"We were very worried about the mountain gorillas as we had not any contact with them for over a year but ICCN rangers have already seen many of the mountain gorilla families and we are happy to report that most of them seem to be doing well," said de Merode. "We are continuing our census of the gorillas and are reinstating our antipoaching operations."

There are only about 700 mountain gorillas left in the wild, and Virunga National Park is thought to be inhabited by around 72 of the animals.

Ranger watches gorilla watching him in Virunga National Park (Photo by Stood in the Congo)

The central and eastern sectors of the park remain unsafe. More than half of the 2,000 ICCN's staffers and their families who work in Virunga National Park are now living at sites for internally displaced persons outside of the park because of fighting between Nkunda's army and the Congolese army.

Virunga National Park was created in 1925 as Africa's first protected area and is located in the eastern part of the DRC, bordering Rwanda and Uganda. Despite its protected status, encroachment for farming and settlement, as well as by warring rebel factions, is leading to uncontrolled exploitation of its forests.

The conflict in the Congo has forced thousands of people to flee their homes and there are now an estimated 145,000 internally displaced persons scattered in six sites just outside of the national park. The people living in these sites are in desperate need of food, shelter and fuelwood, says WWF, which has been working in the area.

WWF has been focusing its efforts in the area on the humanitarian crisis caused by the conflict and is distributing fuelwood from sustainable tree plantations to people living in the internally displaced persons' sites. WWF has been passing out improved cooking stoves, which use half the amount of fuelwood as a normal stove.

Tests in the DRC have found that the locally made "Rocket Stoves" can cut charcoal and wood use by up to 70 percent. Expanding the distribution of the stoves to thousands of homes in the region could help reduce pressure on gorilla forest habitats; boost incomes and livelihoods for local people and improve air quality in local homes.

Gorillas in Virunga National Park (Photo by Stood in the Congo)

"WWF believes that the needs of people displaced by the fighting and the gorillas are inextricably linked. We are providing displaced people with the basic resources they need for shelter and cooking, while at the same time protecting Virugna National Park's forests, which are already heavily damaged by illegal logging for wood and charcoal," said Dr. Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF International's Species Programme.

"We hope that a normal life can quickly be restored for local communities living near and benefiting from the park and its gorillas," she said.

In the coming year, gorilla conservation will be high on the agenda for some of the world's largest conservation organizations, particularly the UN Environment Programme, UNEP.

The UNEP Convention on Migratory Species, the UNEP/UNESCO Great Ape Survival Partnership and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums have partnered to declare 2009 the Year of the Gorilla.

Prince Albert II of Monaco launched the Year of the Gorilla initiative December 1 at the opening of the UNEP Convention on Migratory Species' wildlife conference in Rome.

Renowned British primatologist Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, will serve as the official patron of the 2009 Year of the Gorilla, a 12-month campaign aimed at improving gorilla conservation by bettering the livelihoods and incomes of local people.

"People living in and around the last forested areas are struggling to survive," said Dr. Goodall. "If we can't help these people find ways of living that do not involve continual destruction of the forest, we shall fail in our efforts to protect these wonderful great apes - our closest living relatives."

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.