18 Jan 2007 - Nairobi, Kenya/Gland, Switzerland – Two solitary
silverback gorillas have been killed in the past ten days
by Congo rebels allied to a local warlord in the Virunga
National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
According to WWF, this is the latest in a series of poaching
incidents, which have included hippos and buffaloes, over
the last few weeks during violent clashes between the DRC
army (FARDC) and rebels in the area.
One of the gorillas is believed to have been eaten, sparking
fears for the tiny population that has clung on tenaciously
throughout years of bloody conflict.
Just 700 mountain gorillas survive in the wild, more than
150 of them in the Virunga National Park.
“With so few left in the world, every individual counts,”
said Marc Languy, of WWF’s Eastern Africa Regional Programme.
“The two recently killed silverbacks are from groups habituated
for tourism and are easy targets. Because one of them has
likely been killed for its meat, there is reason to believe
that other gorillas may be in danger too.”
WWF says the Mikeno section of the park and its gorillas
are facing a range of recent potentially catastrophic threats.
“We have worrying evidence that cattle ranching and charcoal
burning have resumed in the sector. This poses a direct
threat to the habitat of this endangered species,” added
Languy.
Mountain gorillas are the premier tourist attraction in
the DRC and represent an important income for the local
economy, estimated at US$3 million annually in periods of
peace.
WWF is calling upon the DRC government, the UN mission
in the country, and the troops loyal to local warlord Laurent
Kunda to take measures to ensure the long-term protection
and conservation of the mountain gorilla and its habitat,
not only for the survival of one of the world’s rarest mammals
but also for the well-being of local people and the national
economy.
END NOTES:
• A subspecies of the eastern gorilla, the mountain gorilla
(Gorilla beringei beringei) became known to science on 17
October 1902. Uncontrolled hunting, destruction of its forest
habitat and capture for the illegal pet trade have led to
a dramatic decline in gorilla numbers.
• Ground-breaking work by conservation groups, however,
has seen the population increase from 624 in 1989 to approximately
700 today. Half of these gorillas are found in Uganda’s
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and the rest are in the
Virunga Mountains, in habitat shared by Mgahinga National
Park in Uganda, Volcanoes National Park in Northern Rwanda,
and the southern sector of Virunga National Park in DRC.
• Virunga National Park, created in 1925 as Africa's first
protected area, extends over an area of 8,000km2. It is
located in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of
Congo, bordering Rwanda's Volcano National Park to the south
and Uganda's Mgahinga National Park. It is characterized
by largely unspoiled tropical montane forests that are extremely
rich in biological diversity, including some of the remaining
populations of the endangered mountain gorillas. Virunga
National Park is now a World Heritage Site. Despite its
protected status, encroachment for farming and settlement,
as well as by warring rebel factions, is leading to uncontrolled
exploitation of the natural resource base.
• WWF's African Great Apes Programme addresses the greatest
threats to great ape conservation: bushmeat hunting, habitat
destruction and fragmentation, the live ape trade, and disease
outbreak and transmission. The International Gorilla Conservation
Programme (IGCP) — a partnership of the African Wildlife
Foundation, Fauna & Flora International and WWF — also
works to ensure the conservation of mountain gorillas and
their forest habitat in Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC.
Joanna Benn, Communications Manager
WWF Global Species Programme
