Rwanda National Parks Dying
1/5/96
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/* Written 9:36 AM Jan 5, 1996 by E_WOLANSKI@AIMS.GOV.AU in
igc:biodiversity */
/* ---------- "Rwanda National Parks Dying" ---------- */
DEATH OF THE AKAGERA NATIONAL PARK, RWANDA - IS ZAIRE'S VIRUNGA
NATIONAL PARK NEXT?
In the midst of almost infinite human suffering in Rwanda, the
plight of the last of Rwanda's wildlife has been forgotten. With
maybe a million people killed in one of the worst massacres in
history, it is little wonder that world attention has not been
directed at Rwanda's great African wildlife reserve, the Akagera
national park. The Akagera National Park covers 2500 km2. It was
gazetted sixty years ago. It spans the escarpment and flood
plains of the eastern part of Rwanda bordering Tanzania and just
touching Uganda. The park has the shape of a triangle pointing
northward. It is home to most of the wildlife that is associated
with the great African game parks including .lion, leopard,
buffalo, hippo, rhino, elephant, topi, zebra and impala. It also
had a remarkable selection of birdlife in its swamps and wetlands,
the most extensive in Africa together with the Okavongo delta in
Botswana. For sixty years and up to last year it was preserved
intact thanks to dedicated conservationists. In terms of
natural beauty, landscape, scenery and animal life, the Akagera is
one of the best national parks in Africa, but it looks like it is
now gone. It now seems inevitable that the park will soon cease
to exist as the Rwanda government moves to degazette the park.
World conservation organisations such as the International Union
for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) are aware of the situation in the Akagera national park but
keep surprisingly silent, maybe because they are on soft money,
depend on various grants and probably do not want to advertise
failure.
In the early 60's many Tutsi fled to the country to Uganda. These
Tutsi formed rebel groups which brought down the Hutu government
last year. The Tutsi people have now returned to Rwanda with
huge herds of cattle, but have nowhere to graze their cattle -
except the Akagera national park. At the very least 650,000 from
a probably conservative FAO estimate, and maybe as much as 2
million cattle from an estimate from the director of RTS, have
entered the Akagera national park the last nine months, causing
serious overgrazing. Most of this cattle belongs to a few rich,
influential people in the new Rwanda government which shows little
sympathy for the park. The Rwanda army has been sent in to
destroy the lions who were attacking cattle, and then slaughter
vast herds of animals who could pass on diseases to the cattle.
Hunting wildlife with guns and automatic weapons is common and
large scale and wildlife meat is commonly used to feed the army.
The park office at the lakes shore is now an army hunting camp.
Trees have been cut in huge numbers for fuel and buildings. In
the northern region, large number of temporary houses, bars and
brothels, have been built - many with UNHCR blue plastic sheets.
Some NGO relief agencies are working to help care for the people
who have invaded the park. Nobody is helping to care for the
wildlife. The international community is spending vast sums of
money to help Rwanda. The present focus of humanitarian aid with
no strings attached and no plans for the future leads to nowhere.
What is needed in Rwanda is a visionary country to re-focus its
aid so as to have make a long-lasting impact. It can do that by
offering, before it is too late, a packaged aid to the Rwanda
government focusing on the Akagera national park. This package
would provide humanitarian aid in the northern region which has
been invaded beyond hope, but also aid in the southern region to
re-establish the park infrastructure. In the long-term this would
help Rwanda start its economy again, from tourism. Without this
vision, aid leads only to making Rwanda a permanent economic
basket case because there is nothing else there beside tourism and
a bit of coffee to lift people out of permanent poverty.
If something is to be done, there is not much time left. To quote
a June 1995 letter from WWF "The Rwanda politicians think that it
is more important to take care of the people's needs than to keep
the park, even after taking into consideration its ecological
importance and economic potential. Some time ago the Minister of
Agriculture declared that the park should be degazetted, in all or
in part, to accommodate the returnees basic needs. The Minister
of Environment and Tourism confirmed this possibility and told me
that a decision would be taken very soon".
Rwanda has the highest population density of any country in
Africa, and it is still doubling roughly every 25 years. This
growth puts tremendous stress in a country where racial tensions
are always at a flash point. Whatever wildlife that still
remains including the mountain gorillas will be obliterated.
There is intense pressure on all national parks in Africa. There
is shortage of agricultural and pastoral land throughout Africa,
and populations are still growing. It is only the western
tourist dollars that stops most parks from being overrun in a
similar way to what occurred in the Akagera. Akagera may be just
the first domino in a line that will eventually see all of the
great east African parks disappear.
Even the famous Serengeti national park in Tanzania has seen in
ten years a doubling of the human population the last 10 years,
now numbering 1 million people, living along its borders. Most
people are not born there, but migrate there to benefit from
conservationists' efforts in improving the lifestyle of the people
around the park. Many settlers turn into poachers. The disaster
in Akagera national park is a reminder of Malthus' prediction of
an exponentially growing human population devouring all its
natural resources just to stay alive. The Akagera is one case
where a visionary donor country could make a long lasting impact
by providing a package to Rwanda of humanitarian aid in the
northern region and restoring the park in the southern region.
No donor country has provided Rwanda an incentive to save the
Akagera national park, 60 years of dedicated and successful
wildlife conservation have been wasted in 6 months.
The Rwanda refugee problem is also affecting the Virunga National
Park in Zaire (ex-Albert National Park). This park was also
created over 60 years, the first national park in Africa. It is
listed on the World heritage List. Dismissing the park
administration, UNHCR found this park a convenient place to let
the refugees cut wood, 15,000 people every day in this task
invading the park. Probably half of the bamboo forest has been
cut already. So many poor, hungry people devastate the wildlife.
Though a recent article in 'National Geographic' stated that only
one gorilla had been killed, more recent information was that four
of the five habituated silverback gorillas were massacred by
Rwanda refugees. At the same time thousands of hippos in the
Rwindi-Rutshuru plains of the Virunga National Park have been
butchered in 1995 for meat and ivory, probably 50% of the hippos
have been destroyed already. Further north in the Virunga
National Park, refugees have invaded the Tshiamberibu enclave
north of Lake Eduard, home of an isolated pocket of mountain
gorillas and wiped out the lot and destroyed the whole forest.
Not a whisper about this massacre was heard anywhere.
1995 was truly the saddest year for wildlife conservation in
Africa ever. The stunning silence of world wildlife conservation
in front of such wholesale destruction of wildlife is a tragic
reminder of their impotence and reliance on soft money. Even
United Nations agencies find national parks, created sixty years
ago and listed on the World Heritage List, a convenient place to
place refugees, without solving any problems as the refugees are
still there in the park with their guns, lawlessness and poaching.
The situation is hopeless and only visionary countries by direct
intervention could save the Akagera and Virunga National Parks
now. Australia has shown leadership worldwide in conservation
issues: Could it show this leadership in Rwanda and Zaire?
Without a visionary country, no wildlife and no forest will
remain, 60 years of dedicated conservation work will have been
wasted without even solving the human problem.
It may be only a matter of time for similar problems to occur in
Australia. Will Kakadu be transformed in a refugee camp if a man-
made or natural famine occurs in Asia and millions of people land
in Australia peacefully but uninvited, just like they did in
Rwanda and Zaire national parks?