Brave Conservationists Perservere as Congo Battles Rage

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, June 8, 2004 (ENS) - Conservation work being conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society is being interrupted by riots and looting in the eastern university town of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Biologist Terese Hart, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in the country, says some work is continuing, but "a rapid halt" was called to a WCS led wildlife inventory in the upland sector of Kahuzi-Biega National Park three weeks ago because of mounting tension.

"There had been a very successful training session, and enthusiastic and capable teams were deployed and had already completed half the work," Hart said. "Hopefully the inventory will resume soon but cannot yet tell when."

The Kahuzi-Biega National Park, a World Heritage Site is most severely affected by the current fighting as it is just outside of Bukavu.

"Bukavu has been the scene of fighting, followed by occupation and sacking by rebel troops allied with Rwanda," Hart said. "The rebel troops have now supposedly withdrawn, although a contingent is apparently still holding the airport which is on the road to the park."

One of the world's last few hundred mountain gorillas in Kahuzi-Biega National Park (Photo courtesy UNESCO)

As long ago as 1997, grave concern that portions of the park had been deforested and that hunting had been reported there, as well as war and civil strife ravaging the country, led the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to inscribe the Kahuzi-Biega park on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Two rebel forces have largely withdrawn from Bukavu, but about 100 fighters from one group have remained in the town and the second force is stationed around the nearby airport north of the town, a United Nations spokesman said Monday.

The two forces seized the town as the organization of the national military in the area collapsed last week and some DRC soldiers took refuge in the relatively small UN force, said Fred Eckhard at UN Headquarters in New York.

The UN Security Council Monday called for an immediate halt to military actions by dissident forces in the DRC and condemned "with utmost firmness" last week's seizure of Bukavu, and the accompanying atrocities and human rights violations.

Hart is trying to carry on WCS conservation work in Bukavu despite the hostilities. "One of our offices is unaffected and work continues," she said. "We have removed all major equipment from the outer office. Police, however, have made a strong show, finally, and the UN is rebuilding its damaged headquarters. We believe that there shall probably be stability in the next couple of days."

Eckhard explained, “General Laurent Nkunda has pledged to the UN mission that he does not intend to return to Bukavu and will continue to relocate to areas close to and in Goma, from where his forces originated. However, his forces continue to be around Kavumu, the airport north of Bukavu."

Children in Bukavu (Photo credit unknown)

The Kahuzi-Biega National Park has been much affected by the influx of refugees, UNESCO writes. Park facilities have been looted and destroyed, and most of the park staff have fled. The park may also be serving as a hideout for large militia groups, as well as for illegal settlers. This has led to fires, increased poaching and the illegal removal and burning of timber. The IUCN has received several pleas from the staff of the park for international aid to rebuild both infrastructure and staff morale.

Meanwhile, Hart says all conservation work is "on hold" in Maiko National Park and Virunga National Park.

The Okapi Faunal Reserve is unafffected, Hart said, although alert to possible extensions of more southern problems. "The multi-project training in inventory methods continues," she said, and socio-economic work continues as planned. The final stages of a U.S. fish and Wildlife Service grant that was used for construction of a patrol post and ivory market study is being completed.

In Salonga National Park work on an international system for monitoring elephant survival called MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants) is continuing, said Hart. MIKE is coordinated by WCS's Dr. John Hart, Terese's husband. The risk assessment covers all of the central African forests, including both protected and unprotected areas.

"Although they are taking longer than originally planned this is not because of war but rather because of the multitudes of unavoidable logistical problems in a park larger than Belgium and with almost no infrastructure," Terese Hart said. "The first phase of the socio-economic surveys are drawing to a close.

"I believe that all WCS/DRC is optimistic," she said, "and everyone feels that this war, like the ones before it, has not and will not affect our determination or impede our overall progress."

Based at New York's Bronx Zoo, the Wildlife Conservation Society believes that "it is not too late to save wildlife and wild places."

In 1959, the Society sponsored biologist George Schaller in his pioneering studies of mountain gorillas in the Congo. By the mid-1970s, WCS had undertaken large scale ecosystem studies in east Africa.

Today, WCS funds research, training and applied conservation projects in 20 African countries and supports more African based field scientists than any other conservation organization.