WWF: NP Virunga slaví 80. výročí uprostřed násilí

Celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of Congo’s Virunga National Park, one of Africa’s oldest parks, were dampened with the recent murder of a ranger by rebels who use the park as a military base.

On Friday, 15 April, ranger Paluku Dunia was shot dead by rebels while out on patrol in the park. In another incident, four rangers from the park’s Rwindi station were also ambushed by rebels. Fortunately, they were let go after their personal belongings and tools were stolen. Other incidents have been reported in the park, which have led to the deaths of locals living in the area, including men, women and children.

“We are very saddened by the death of one of our colleagues in the field,” said Marc Languy, Albertine Rift Ecoregion Coordinator for WWF’s Eastern Africa Regional Programme Office. “As a result of civil unrest in this region, the park has suffered a very high, unprecedented level of encroachment."

Since civil war and ethnic strife erupted in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the early 1990s, poachers, refugees, soldiers and rebels have ravaged the 8,000-square kilometer Virunga National Park, which borders Uganda and Rwanda in the country's north-east. The northern border of the park is often invaded by Uganda rebels, and Rwandan rebels have established bases in the southern part near Lake Edward.

“High-level lobbying is needed against all those who are arming these rebels and wreaking havoc in the park,” said Déo Kajuga Binyeri, Provincial Director of the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN). “The government, as well as the international community, must ensure that rebels using Virunga and the surrounding area are removed so that the national park can recover.”

The occupation of parts of the park by rebels has not only prevented rangers from patrolling the area, but has been responsible for serious ecological damage. It is estimated that 1,700ha of forests are lost each year by those plundering the park’s natural resources. In addition, thousands of animals have been killed for food and trade, including the endangered mountain gorilla.

The Virunga National Park is one of the most biologically diverse regions of Africa, with over 700 species of birds and 200 species of mammals. The park is part of the Virunga massif, which holds half of the remaining 700 mountain gorillas in the world.

“Thanks to conservation efforts during the past decades, mountain gorillas have survived civil unrest and war in the region,” Languy said. “Eighty years on since the park’s initiation, growing violence once again poses a serious threat to both local communities and the future of the mountain gorilla.”

Since 1987, WWF, in collaboration with ICCN, has supported conservation initiatives including environmental awareness and education, sustainable livelihoods, reforestation, as well as equipping and paying salaries for the park staff.

NOTES:
• Three hundred and eighty mountain gorillas occur on the extinct volcanoes forming the Virunga Range, along the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
• Most of these gorillas range within the southern part of Virunga National Park, DRC, and the Volcanoes National Park (Parc National des Volcans) in northern Rwanda, while a few use the Mgahinga National Park in southwestern Uganda.
• A separate population is found in the nearby Bwindi-Impenetrable National Park in southwest Uganda, on the border with the DRC, at elevations of 1,500 to 2,300m. A 2002 census recorded 320 individuals, a number which suggests that the population remains stable.
• Established in 1925 as Albert National Park, it was later renamed in the 1970s as the Virunga National Park. Virunga was inscribed on the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger in 1994.