Urgent Action Needed to Save Congo's Ecosystem

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/

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

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.

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