Urgent Action Needed to Save Congo's Ecosystem
8/2/97
OVERVIEW, SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE
While the tremendous human suffering occurring in Congo can and must not
be forgotten, the area is also rich in wildlife (including white rhinos
and mountain gorillas) and vegetation (one of largest rainforest expanses
remaining). Following is coverage of the virtual collapse of wildlife
parks harboring some of the World's most magnificent and endangered
creatures. The call is made by WWF for urgent aid to save protected areas
devastated by the fighting. Stabilization of the conservation area and
surrounding ecosystem, and revitalization of local people's involvement
and benefits from world class parks, could conceivably be the engine for
sustainable development. Clearly the developed World must be willing to
transfer resources and provide other assistance above and beyond their
ongoing efforts - for areas of extreme ecological value faced by
political, environmental catastrophes or other emergencies. Loss of the
forests, wildlife and cultures of the Congo rainforest will be a
catastrophe of global and historical significance.
g.b.
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Title: Urgent action said vital to save Congo wildlife
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1997, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: 7/24/97
GENEVA (Reuter) - Fast international action is vital to help the former
Zaire save some of the world's most endangered animals including white
rhinos and mountain gorillas, a major wildlife body said Thursday.
The Swiss-based World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said the government of
the newly-named Democratic Republic of the Congo was in urgent need of aid
to save protected areas devastated in the last year of fighting in the
east of the country.
"Major interventions are needed immediately or the world will lose species
that exist only in this war-torn country," WWF Director-General Claude
Martin said in a statement.
National parks like the world-famous Garamba, Virunga and Kahuzi-Biega
areas and the Okapi Fauna Reserve, all listed by the United Nations
cultural organization UNESCO as World Heritage Sites, were threatened with
collapse, said Martin.
Fighting between forces of the now deposed president Mobutu Sese Seko and
the Alliance of Democratic Forces of the new president, Laurent Kabila,
had raged through the parks.
Much of their conservation equipment, including anti-poaching patrol
vehicles and radios, had been looted. Park staff in Garamba could now only
carry out 15 per cent of the anti-poaching operations that were routine
before the conflict.
The WWF said aerial surveys in Garamba had shown only 24 northern white
rhinos still alive, down from an estimated 31 a year ago. The survey
revealed many poachers' camps and 29 dead elephants, 24 buffalos and 16
hippos, all freshly killed.
In the Virunga, Africa's oldest national park on Congo's borders with
Rwanda and Uganda and near vast camps of refugees from Rwanda for some
three years, militia groups were still active and heavy poaching was
decimating wildlife.
In the last two years, 44 park guards had died on duty and 12 of the
highly-endangered mountain gorillas -- one of only two populations still
remaining on the continent -- had been killed.
The local hippo population had been almost wiped out, plunging from over
30,000 10 years ago to about 3,000 in 1996, the WWF said.