Coalition Acts in DRC, Providing Emergency Funding for Gorilla Protection

VIRUNGA HEARTLAND, DRC--The International Gorilla Conservation Program, a coalition of the African Wildlife Foundation, Fauna and Flora International, and the Worldwide Fund for Nature, recently provided upwards of $50,000 to the Congolese national park authority to help ensure mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Virunga National Park are protected from the ravages of war. The complex conflict in the DRC, which has been simmering for years, recently erupted again, with rebels led by dissident General Laurent Nkunda capturing the Congolese Army post of Rumangabo, and Virunga National Park headquarters. Fighting near the park's headquarters continues, and in addition to creating a severe humanitarian crisis, has disrupted efforts to protect the region's mountain gorillas. Rangers have been forced to flee, leaving vulnerable the park's Mikeno sector, which is the gorillas' home.

IGCP has tapped $50,000 in emergency relief funds to provide humanitarian relief to those forced to flee, including IGCP's DRC staff and their families, who have safely been evacuated to the border town of Gisenyi in Rwanda. IGCP is working with its Virunga National Park partner, ICCN (Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation) to continue relief and conservation activities under the current difficult conditions.

Although regular gorilla monitoring operations have been suspended, more than 20 rangers have stayed near the park throughout the fighting, and the gorillas to date appear unharmed. The emergency funding will go a long way in ensuring that the gorillas continue to be protected and that IGCP's staff and its partners are safe, healthy and prepared to resume full-time conservation work in the area once conditions permit. With high-level international government officials now involved in negotiating for an end to hostilities and supporting a coordinated humanitarian relief effort, IGCP continues to look forward to longer lasting peace. In the meantime, we remain vigilant in our gorilla conservation efforts and supportive of our partners and local communities.

AWF has worked for more than three decades to protect the world's highly endangered mountain gorilla. To learn more about our work in this area, click here.

To read a recent news report about the conflict and its effect on the gorillas, click here.

To support IGCP and its work to conserve the highly endangered mountain gorilla, click here.