AWF and US Fish and Wildlife Service Sign Two New Agreements

US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), International Conservation Program

Black Rhino Conservation in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

With support from the USFWS, AWF will monitor and protect the eastern subspecies of the black rhinoceros in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) in Tanzania. These activities will be implemented so as to maximize the rate of increase of this rhino population. Only some 485 eastern black rhino survive, with approximately 60 in Tanzania and the remainder in Kenya. This project is a high priority for the conservation of the eastern black rhinoceros because while holding only 15 rhino at the moment, the NCA is thought to have a potential carrying capacity of some 2,500 rhino.

US Fish and Wildlife Service, International Conservation Program

Ranger-based monitoring of Mountain Gorillas in the Virungas, (Rwanda, Uganda, DR Congo)

This agreement will provide support to allow the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP) to conduct an extensive ranger-based monitoring (RBM) program in the Virunga-Bwindi Forest Ecosystem, which represents the sole range of the mountain gorilla, of which approximately 650 individuals remain. This project will train and support park rangers to monitor ape populations and threats to their survival. The work supported here addresses the urgent conservation needs in the Virunga Heartland wrought by human overpopulation, poverty, years of civil war, and other disturbances to these isolated and endangered populations.