Dear Birdingaussers,
As I promised in May: the recent artcle by Greg Roberts in the SMH. It was
typed up for us by Audra Topping (she can be thanked on
Enjoy.
Glen Ingram
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On a crisp morning in May in the moss-laden forests of Virunga National
Park, troops of the Democratic Republic of the Congo were on manoeuvre when
they were stopped abruptly in their tracks by an unearthly scream.
Kabiriza, a huge silverback gorilla, bore down upon them, tearing at
branches and roaring furiously. It was angry that its band of rare
mountain gorillas had been disturbed by gunfire exchanged between the
soldiers and Rwandan rebels they were pursuing. His charge was
short-lived. In a panic, two troops sprayed the gorilla band with
machine-gun fire, killing Kabiriza and three others.
Kabiriza had taken over the leadership of the group from another
silverback, Luwawa, who was short dead by rebels in 1995. The latest
casualties in the group bring to at least 14 the number of mountain
gorillas killed during combat operations in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, formerly Zaire, and neighbouring Rwanda.
Much has been heard of the immense human suffering inflicted in Africa's
Great Lakes region since 1994, but little has surfaced about the wildlife
victims. It has become clear only recently that the human conflicts, first
in Rwanda and then in Congo, have exacted a huge environmental toll.
Conservationists are describing the consequences as one of this country's
great environmental catastrophes.
Tens of thousands of hippopotamuses, buffalo and other animals have been
slaughtered for food or sport and a brisk trade in "bushmeat" continues in
Rwanda and Congo. Exotic diseases are being introduced into wildlife
herds. The mountain gorilla has been pushed further towards the brink of
extinction. A national park of international significance has been carved
up by settlers. Infrastructure for environmental management built up over
decades has been dismantled in both countries.
Initially, the scale of human misery made some cost to wild animals
unavoidable. Bushmeat helped ease a little of the pain of a million
Rwandan refugees who fled to what was then Zaire in 1994. Since then,
however, there has been little justification for what has unfolded. Much
of the damage in Congo has been a direct consequence of that country's
recently concluded civil war and the general breakdown in government
authority.
The fate of one of the early victims of the turmoil is typical. Matheshe,
a silverback lowland gorilla (the mountain gorilla's more common relative),
was a national icon. It delighted thousands of tourists to Kahuzi-Biega
National Park in eastern Congo over many years with its gentle disposition.
Its regal image appeared on Zairean banknotes. Much of the footage in the
movie Gorillas in the Mist was of Maheshe's group.
Maheshe's body was found in the forest minus head and hands. Believing
they had little to fear from the authorities, poachers short the gorilla,
intending to sell the body parts for souvenirs.
The 7,000 square kilometre Kahuzi-Biega park, like other reserves in the
region, has been stripped of management resources. Rangers and other
employees have been killed or disarmed. Vehicles and other equipment were
pillaged by the defeated troops of the deposed President Mobutu Sese Seko.
As the new president, Laurent Kabila, consolidates his leadership, the
mayhem continues.
A report just received by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) from Congo
informants indicates a great deal of poaching in Kahuzi-Biega recently of
animals ranging from bush pigs and duikers (small antelopes) to monkeys and
lowland gorillas. At least 17 gorillas have reportedly been killed, with
the remains of several being seen in the markets of the nearby town of
Bukavu. Another report says 34 park elephants have been killed.
Everyone, from Rwandan refugees (tens of thousands of whom remain in Congo)
to soliders of the ousted regime and Kabila's forces, has been implicated
in the slaughter. Local residents have taken advantage of the disorder to
infringe on the national park boundaries, clearing forst and planting
crops.
The story has been similar further west in the lush Irangi lowland
rainforests. A scientific research station and a stately colonial home
overlooking the Lwana River, used by King Leopold as a retreat in the days
of the Belgian Congo, have been razed. Nobody knows what the toll has been
on the okapi, the Congo peafowl and other rare and exotic animals in the
forests, but many snares have reportedly been laid.
Further north, in the savannah country of Virunga National Park, the
animals are more visible and the extent of destruction has been more
readily documented. As many as 3,000 hippopotamuses have been short for
their meat and ivory, along with numerous Uganda kob, waterbuck, topi and
other antelopes. So many Cape buffalo continue to be killed that buffalo
meat is cheaper than beef or mutton in Goma, the region's administrative
centre.
Annette Lanjouw, the regional co-ordinator of the International Gorilla
Conservation Program, says: "A lot of people simply regarded the national
park as being full of meat. Loads of people moving through the park saw
their dinner standing by the roadside."
According to Georges Gerin, a biologist, the park's entire elephant
population of between 200 and 250 has been killed since the civil war
erupted late last year. Gerin says soldiers from both sides have sold
ivory to buy guns, and they habitually blame refugees for the carnage.
The WWF estimates that more than 300 square kilometres of the park ? the
first to be established in Africa (in 1925) ? have been deforested or badly
damaged by people foraging for food and growing crops, or by soliders
cutting down trees to sell the wood.
Volcanic mountains in the park's rugged eastern sector and the adjoining
Volcanos National Park in Rwanda are home to most of the world's 300 to 600
surviving mountain gorillas. Scientists are concerned that many of the
gorillas which have fallen victim to guns and landmines have, like
Kabiriza, been silverbacks. The big males play a key role in protecting
and maintaining social cohesion in gorilla groups.
Mountain gorillas are dying because their forests are used as a refuge by
2,000 rebels. Exiled soliders of Rwanda's former Hutu regime, the rebels
are conducting hit-and-run missions against the Tutsi-led Government, an
ally of Kabila's new administration. Rwanda has suspended most visits to
the gorillas by tourists ? previously an important source of income for the
country ? after several attacks in the Rugengeri region on Europeans,
including the murder of three Spanish aid workers in January.
The Volcanos park was made famous by the primatologist Dian Fossey and her
research station, Karisoke, which has been destroyed by the rebels.
(Fossey herself was murdered in 1985.) Andrew Plumptre, a British
biologist who has just returned from Rwanda, says gorillas are ranging the
park's fringes in areas they have not been before, "making you wonder
what's going on deeper in the par;". He says combatants in the forests are
surviving by eating bushbucks, duikers and other bushmeat.
Plumptre says the tide of human misery continues unabated in this part of
Rwanda. In one day during his visit in May, 37 people were killed in the
twon og Kinigi. He says conservation efforts are hampered by a climate of
fear. "You daren't even talk to your neighbour about what's happening
because if you know too much you may be labelled a collaborator or a
witness and be targeted by either side."
Lanjouw is concerned that conservation workers in Congo and Rwanda have
been denied access to the forests, home to 11 groups of gorillas that have
become accustomed to humans. "These animals are used to the sight of
people and so are very vulnerable."
Further south, on the Rwanda-Burundi border, lies the Nyungwe Forest
Reserve, 970 square kilometres of spectacular rainforest and the habitat of
dozens of wildlife species found in the world only in the surrounding
Albertine Rift region. Poaching in the forest has been widespread, with
snares catching hundreds of duikers. Among the animals shot for food are
mona and colobus monkeys and chimpanzees, which are endangered in Rwanda.
Gerin says many Batwa pygmies in the forest have been killed by Rwandan
troops who have mistaken them for Hutu rebels. "The real story of genocide
in Rwanda is what has happened to the Batwans."
Rwanda's Akagera National Park ranked as one of the world's great wildlife
refuges. Its 2,500 square kilometres comprised 10 per cent of Rwanda, one
of the world's most densely populated nations, but the Government has
decommissioned much of it.
Akagera is one of the big losers of the Rwandan conflict. Rwandan Tutsis
who had been living in exile in Uganda for decades have settled in the park
after returning home because there is little room elsewhere. Many of the
Hutu refugees who have returned recently from camps in Tanzania and Congo
have found their homes occupied and have been sent to Akagera.
More than half the national park, along with the adjoining 850 square
kilometre Mutara game reserve, has been settled by tens of thousands of
people, say Jean-Pierre D'Huart, the WWF's East Africa co-ordinator.
"There are buidings and fences and things popping up all over the place."
The Gabira Guesthouse, the park's main tourist accommodation in the past,
has been converted to a base for 4,000 Rwandan troops. Another military
base has been established in the park's interior. Conservation agencies
have been told soliders are systematically shooting zebra, impala,
crocodiles and other game, and that large quantities of bushmeat are being
trucked to Kigali for sale.
Soldiers are shooting or poisoning lions, leopards and other predators they
regard as threats to the huge herds of cattle (as many as 2 million by one
estimate) brought in by the Tutsis from Uganda. Animals surviving the gun
may fall victim to three bovine diseases identified in the cattle by French
scientists.
"You can drive long distances where there were once plenty of animals and
not see anything," D'Huart says. "Itis a total disaster." He says the
cattle herds may be doomed by the tsetse flies that abound in the park and
that the settlement policy makes no sense economically anyway in such a
poor country, where tourism offers the biggest potential for badly needed
foreign exchange. "We try to tell the Government but they will not
listen."
Environmental agencies are dismayed that Rwanda has irgnored
representations from Germany and other donor nations to protect the
national park. They have been reluctant to publicise developments until
now because of fears of antagonising the Government.
The agencies are only slightly more optimistic about Congo, whose
Government recently directed troops to maintain order in Virunga National
Park. Says Lanjouw: "Things have started to improve a little but there is
a long way to go."
Says Gerin: "You can only be very pessimistic. It is a disaster for the
world."
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