RWANDA-ENVIRONMENT: Gorilla Population on the Increase

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Aug 12 1996 (IPS) - Seven births might not seem a large number, but when they occur in three months in a tiny population, that’s enough to make conservationists excited.

The births were registered among Rwanda’s mountain gorillas, which managed to survive the country’s bloody civil war in 1994 and an onslaught by poachers in 1995.

“The birth of the mountain gorillas is a hopeful sign of stability and recovery for one of Africa’s most endangered animal species,” says Annette Lanjouw of the Nairobi-based International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP).

Officials from the IGCP — jointly sponsored by the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Fauna and Flora International (FFI) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) — said last week that the seven young gorillas were born at Rwanda’s Volcano National Park (PNV).

The reserve is part of a natural zone that includes Zaire’s Virunga National Park and Uganda’s Mgahinga Gorilla National Park.

“It is very encouraging to register such a high number of births, given all the bad incidents that took place last year in this area,” said Lanjouw, Regional Coordinator for IGCP. “Fortunately, all mothers and infants seem to be in good condition.”

The organisation believes that eight mountain gorillas were killed last year by poachers using spears and firearms, following a 10-year period in which none had been poached.

The world’s last remaining mountains gorillas are concentrated in three neighbouring countries: Rwanda, Zaire and Uganda.

The seven births were registered in a population of about 320 that range over the Virunga Mountains, which straddle the three countries. Another 300-odd animals live 25 km to the north in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) of south-western Uganda.

In 1968, growing economic problems led the Rwandan government to hand over more than a third of the land in the PNV for agricultural production. In response, the Mountain Gorilla Project was established in 1979.

The IGCP, launched in 1991, is an expanded follow-up of that project. So far it has focussed on assessing the status of gorilla and mountain forest conservation in Rwanda, eastern Zaire and western Uganda, establishing a regional network linking the three countries and identifying needs and priorities.

Research on the gorillas was affected by the 1994 conflict in Rwanda but the damage was limited by the efforts of the Rwandan Tourism and National Parks Office (ORTPN).

The WWF-USA this year awarded its 19th annual J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize to the staff of the ORTPN for their courage and dedication in conserving the PNV and safeguarding the gorillas during and after the war.

One of the most prestigious awards given for significant achievement in conservation of wildlife and wildlands, the prize was created in 1974 by the late J. Paul Getty. Past winners include the West Bengal Forest Protection Committees and COMMUNIDEC, a research systems and development organisation in Quito, Ecuador.

Research efforts in the PNV have now been restored almost to the pre-war level.

A new park headquarters now stands where the old office — destroyed during the war — used to be, and land mines are being painstakingly searched at Volcano National Park by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) with financing from IGCP.

But the threat posed by the aftermath of the Rwandan crisis, as a result of which about 850,000 people fled Rwanda and were accommodated in camps along the edge of the Parc National des Virunga (PNVi) in Zaire still remains.

“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,” the WWF warned in a recent statement.