Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
20 August 2007
Kigali — Conservationists in D R Congo believe last month's execution of four mountain gorillas inside the Virunga National park was carried out by people associated with the charcoal trade who want the park unprotected, RNA reports.
"The gorillas have become a hindrance for the charcoal trade," Mr. Emmanuel de Merode, director of Wildlife Direct told National Geographic News on Friday. Wildlife Direct is a conservation group based in the DR Congo and Kenya that supports the park rangers working in Virunga.
Mr. De Merode added: "There's a very strong incentive for these people to kill the gorillas."
The park's dense forest is rapidly being depleted of its trees to satisfy the almost insatiable demand here for charcoal, which is used for cooking and heating by the millions of people living in this troubled region.
The lucrative charcoal trade is not only wreaking havoc on the park but also on its most famous inhabitants, the rare mountain gorillas.
Last week, park rangers announced that Macibiri, the female adult who went missing during the July, was dead. Her infant, Ntaribi born January 26 last year, has not been found.
Mountain gorillas in the park are estimated at 370 out of a total of 700 mountain gorillas worldwide. Seven gorillas have been killed in separate incidents this year alone.
Meanwhile, experts from the UN agency - UNESCO and World Conservation Union (IUCN) are in the DR Congo for a 10-day investigation of the alleged slaughter of the mountain gorillas. The investigators arrive in the country on August 11.
The experts will meet DRC political and military leaders and examine the state of conservation of Virunga National Park, the threats on the site and its actual management.
Virunga National Park was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1979 and on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 1994.
The UN agency described the killings as a blow for the preservation of mountain gorillas and a setback for conservation efforts at the World Heritage site.
Situated in the northeast region of the DRC, shared with Uganda and Rwanda, Virunga is the oldest national park in Africa, established in 1925. The park is one of five sites in DRC considered in danger.
UNESCO and observers are particularly concerned that political and military improvements on the ground in recent years have failed to contribute to the conservation of these sites.
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