Mountain Gorilla Investigation Gathers Pace

Congolese authorities have arrested a suspect in connection with the killing of 10 mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo last year. The suspect is a senior park official and the ongoing investigation attributes the motivation behind the gorilla killings to an indirect link to the illegal trade of charcoal (locally known as makala).

"This is an extremely important development," says Craig Sholley, Senior Director of Development at the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF). "It is our hope that whoever is responsible for the gorilla killings will be identified and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The gorilla killings were a tragic setback for conservation in the region."

AWF works to conserve the mountain gorilla through the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP), a coalition of AWF, Fauna and Flora International, and the Worldwide Fund for Nature. "Solving this crime," Sholley says, "would allow IGCP to move forward with the challenging work required to conserve this highly endangered great ape."

There are only 720 mountain gorillas left in the world, more than half of which live in the forested mountains where the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda intersect. The rest inhabit the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. The 10 mountain gorilla killings in 2007 sparked outrage and concern among conservationists and the international community. Given the small number of mountain gorillas, deaths of such magnitude could jeopardize the species' survival.

Since the conservation setback in 2007, the great ape's prospects for wider protection have improved, with the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda in February launching a 10-year transboundary initiative to conserve its habitat. Through the initiative, the countries will strengthen and harmonize their conservation policies, and leverage their resources to reduce threats to the gorillas and the Central Albertine Rift area as a whole.

Since 1979, AWF has worked with Rwanda's Mountain Gorilla Project and subsequently IGCP to conserve the highly endangered mountain gorilla.