/ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN 10/ ENVIRONMENT: Gorilla Custodians Keep Poachers at Bay

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, May 25 1996 (IPS) - The custodians of the few remaining gorillas in Rwanda have won an international prize for keeping poachers at bay during and after the tragic civil war of 1994 in which up to one million people died.

The 50,000-dollar J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize, which will be handed over next week, will be shared between 67 people, while a portion will be used to buy much-needed field equipment for their work and the well-being of their families.

The recipients include the staff of the Office Rwandans du Tourisme et des Parcs Nationaux (ORTPN), a demining team from the Rwanda Patriotic Army, and the community at Kinigi, the Parc National des Volcans (PNV) headquarters, which will be the venue of the awards ceremony.

“I think it’s very exciting that the locals are being rewarded,” says Annabel Falcon of the Nairobi-based International Gorilla Conservation Programme (ICGP), which is organising the ceremony.

One of the most prestigious awards given for significant achievement in conservation of wildlife and wildlands, the Getty prize was created in 1994. Past winners include the West Bengal Forest Protection Committees and COMMUNIDEC, a research systems and development organisation in Quito, Ecuador.

The award will be given to ORTPN staff through the ICGP, a coalition of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-International), the African Wildlife Foundation and Fauna and Flora International.

Launched in 1991, IGCP is the only conservation programme that works in the Great Lakes region where the last remaining mountain gorillas are found, and the only one to work in partnership with the protected area authorities in Rwanda, Uganda and Zaire.

“IGCP’s regional approach, technical background and programme flexibility have enabled it to react rapidly, and effectively, throughout the recent crisis in Rwanda and Zaire,” says Falcon.

One group numbering about 320 ranges over the Virunga mountains, which straddles the borders of all three countries. The other, of about 300 animals, lives 25 kms north in the Bwidi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) of south-western Uganda.

In 1968, growing economic problems led to the Rwandan government converting more than a third of the land in the Parc National des Volcans to agricultural production. In response the Mountain Gorilla Project was established.

In 1994, during the bloody Rwandan crisis, about 850,000 refugees fled Rwanda and were accommodated in camps along the edge of the Parc National des Virunga (PNVI), in Zaire.

“As a consequence of this war, half of the world’s gorilla population is currently severely threatened, due to habitat destruction, poaching, mines, and the possible spread of human diseases,” says Annette Lanjouw of the IGCP.

Infact, last year eight gorillas were killed. Four Bwindi gorillas were speared, and the four others (three confirmed to be as a result of poaching) were from Virunga National Park in Zaire and included three silverbacks.

In response, the IGCP is funding anti-poaching patrols in both Zaire and Rwanda. Once the security situation improves, IGCP says it will resume organising joint patrols with guards from Uganda, Rwanda and Zaire.

According to IGCP, the poachers use AK-47s, no match for the antiquated and inaccurate Mausers-52 rifles carried by the game guards. To protect them, IGCP has purchased bullet-proof vests and a radio network and communications equipment have also been supplied.

Falcon is however relieved that there hasn’t been any poaching of gorillas in Rwanda of late. The citation on the J. Paul Getty prize to the Parc National des Volcans and their conservation partners is “for their outstanding courage and dedication in safeguarding the endangered mountain gorilla.”