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Gorilla conservation
Monday, November 21, 2005
The Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Some day, you may be able to visit gorillas on a reserve in what was once a war-torn region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
But for now, that's a dream being nurtured by a Congolese man who has just been honored with a prestigious award.
In 2000, Pierre Kakula Vwirasihikya persuaded local leaders to create the community-run, 220,000-acre Tayna Gorilla Reserve in the North Kivu province of eastern Congo. He also created the Tayna Center for Conservation Biology, a university that is training 350 people.
Vwirasihikya, a local chief and former game warden, had organized other chiefs to protect their homelands during the war that began in neighboring Rwanda and spilled over into the Congo, eventually leading to a civil war.
Thousands of Grauer's gorillas -- a subspecies found only in the Congo that is larger than the mountain gorillas studied by the late Dian Fossey -- were threatened by habitat destruction and hunters killing them for meat or trophies during the war. At least 400 of the gorillas are believed to remain in the Tayna reserve.
In October, Vwirasihikya was honored by Conde Nast Traveler at an event in New York where he received the magazine's 2005 Environmental Award. His work is also supported by the organization Conservation International, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International.
Among his goals are habituating gorillas in the Tayna reserve to the presence of humans, as a way of preparing them for the eco-tourists he hopes will come in the future.
For more details, visit Conservation International, at http://www.conservation.org or the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, http://www.gorillafund.org.
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