Rangers Return To Virunga After 14 Mo In Rebel Hands - 200 Of Last 700 Mountain Gorillas Lived There

[hatrack]

GOMA, Democratic Republic of the Congo, November 21, 2008 (ENS) - More than 120 Park Rangers of the Congolese Wildlife Authority, ICCN, today returned to Virunga National Park - 14 months after fleeing violent hostilities between rebels and government soldiers. The Gorilla Sector of Virunga National Park is inhabited by 200 of the last remaining 700 critically endangered mountain gorillas in the world. Since September 2007, it has been occupied by rebels who had driven the rangers out.

"It is a huge step that all sides have agreed that the protection of Virunga as a World Heritage Site and its mountain gorillas is of sufficient priority to transcend political differences," said Virunga Park Director Emmanuel de Merode. "Rangers are neutral in this conflict, and it is right that they should be allowed to do their job," he said.

EDIT

Now that the rangers are back in the park, they are planning to take a census of the habituated mountain gorillas. These are animals that have become accustomed to the presence of humans and are the ones visited by the tourist groups whose purchases supply much of the money for protection of the area. The last census in August 2007 indicated there are 72 habituated gorillas, but this figure is expected to have changed due to births, death, and interactions, park officials say.

Mountain Gorillas are critically endangered, with only 700 remaining in the world, about 380 in the Virunga Volcanoes Conservation Area, which is shared by DRC, Rwanda and Uganda, and 320 in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest of Uganda. Despite the conflict in the region, their decline had been reversed up until January 2007 thanks to international support and courageous conservationists coupled with the popularity of gorilla-watching tourism, said de Merode.

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http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2008/2008-11-21-03.asp

[Dead_Parrot]

1. Now there's a depressing job.

I shudder to think what they'll find. Or rather, won't find. :(