In late June the forest clearance was finally halted after conservation groups and Western governments pressured the Rwandan government to intervene. The settlers and the cattle were driven out.
But the damage is already done. An aerial survey on June 12 by the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature showed that 15 square kilometers (5.8 square miles)—or as much as 10 percent of the Mikeno sector of the park—has been destroyed.
Human Encroachment
Virunga National Park straddles the Rwandan and Ugandan border. It was created in 1925, boasts the highest biological diversity in Africa, and was made famous by gorilla expert Dian Fossey. The landscape ranges from volcanoes and Afro-alpine mountains to savanna and lowland rain forest. The park is also home to the world's only golden monkey population.
"Forest destruction and human encroachment [in Virunga] … have profound implications for the future viability of this ecosystem," wrote Klaus Toepfer in a letter to the environment ministers for Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. Based in Kenya, Toepfer is the executive director of the UN Environment Programme.
The most famous resident of Virunga is the mountain gorilla. More than half of the species' population, estimated at 700 to 750, is found there. The rest live in Rwanda and Uganda.
Mountain gorillas feed on a diet of natural bamboo and alpine forest vegetation. Encroachment into their habitat reduces their access to food, as well as their breeding area.
"Loss of habitat is the worst threat to this species," said Marc Languy, coordinator of World Wildlife Fund's program in the Albertine Rift, where Virunga is located.
Mountain gorillas are considered by many to be a conservation success story. Despite more than ten years of conflict in the region, the gorilla population has increased by 17 percent since 1989. Today gorilla tourism to the region generates two million dollars (U.S.) in annual revenues.
But the conservation has come at a high cost. Ninety-two Congolese park officials have been killed since 1996. At least two rangers have been killed in recent weeks. On the night of June 25 one park station was looted and burned by 300 militias.
During the Mikeno invasion regular monitoring of the gorillas was halted in one part of the park, and rangers lost track of three gorillas from habituated families.
Conservationists now hope that the new wall around part of the park will help rangers monitor any illegal activities. Construction on the 20-kilometer-long (12.4-mile-long) wall, which will be one meter (3.2 feet) high and one meter wide, started on July 6.
Under Attack
Other parks in the region are also coming under attack. Last week in Rwanda poachers reportedly burned a third of the country's largest national park, Akagera. The preserve is home to elephants, giraffes, zebra, and various species of antelope and monkey.
Garamba National Park, in northeastern Congo, has been invaded by Sudanese poachers who have killed several of the two dozen remaining northern white rhinos there.
"The damage is not just in the mountain gorilla sector of Virunga, which receives considerable support and attention from the international community," said de Merode, "but also [in] other neglected parks in Congo, where local wildlife staff are very much alone in their attempt to protect the wildlife."
Militias known as the Mai Mai recently looted and burned the headquarters of Upemba National Park in Congo's southern Katanga province. Five park rangers were killed in their homes during the assault.
"These incidents have happened regularly in all of Congo's national parks since the beginning of the war in 1996," said de Merode. "But the last month has been particularly bad."
For more African-animal news, scroll down.
|
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES
|
