Environmental & Biodiversity Conservation Projects in the Congo

FONDAMU is still designing the environmental and biodiversity projects in the Congo. We will make available two kinds of projects: (1) alternative revenue generating initiatives, and (2) cash or livestock microcredit to support people living around Kahuzi-Biega and Virunga National Parks, which are both in the Kivu. These projects will help people cope with the life around the protected areas and participate in various conservation efforts. We also plan to cooperate with other organizations and assist in fundraising for projects that solve the environmental and conservation issues in the Congo Basin, and to set up an environmental impact statement group within FONDAMU.

Dr. Dieudonné Trinto Mugangu, a wildlife conservation biologist and one of the founders of FONDAMU, has been instrumental in designing and raising funds for several dozen biodiversity conservation projects across Sub-Saharan Africa including a sizeable (US $6 million) DR Congo project that rehabilitates protected areas. The rehabilitation project is with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and is under implementation by the DR Congo Park Service.

One of the few biodiversity projects that are now successful in DR Congo was designed by Dr. Trinto Mugangu. This is the Mount Tshiaberimu (meaning the mountain of the spirits) Conservation Project.

The lone star cattle shepherd, champion of conservation, and silverback lowland gorilla in Mount Tshiaberimu, is Mukokya who is pictured on the shirts of people that attended the 10-year celebrations of the successful conservation project. This picture was taken in Burusi, North Kivu, on 10 October 2006. Mr. Norbert Mushenzi, the Park Service Director of Virunga National Park, Northern Sector, is one of the first Congolese specialists who habituated lowland gorillas (that is, help the animals adjust to the people nearby) in the 1970s in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, South Kivu.

The success story started in 1996 when Mount Tshiaberimu was under extreme pressures by the local populations who invaded 30% of the protected areas by cutting the wood, making charcoal, growing their crop there and chasing the wildlife. As a result a large population (numbering in the thousands) of lowland gorillas there was reduced to only 11 individuals, and the international community warned that it was on the brink of extinction. So Trinto Mugangu, with a Rockefeller Foundation grant of US $32,000, made a post-doctorate survey to find out the motivations of the local communities surrounding the mountain and seek concerted ways to (1) improve their relationships with the park managers and (2) increase local participation in the conservation of the park resources. The park authorities agreed that the local people needed to share in the proceeds from tourism. The local communities also sought from the conservation organizations alternative sources of revenue such as microcredit of small and large animals. They wanted support for their farms in the form of improved seeds and construction of rural roads. International NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) such as the Gorilla Organisation (Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund) took these resolutions seriously, and started to implement them one by one. Also this was coupled with the habituation program of the lowland gorillas in Mount Tshiaberimu and the building of sturdy park stations at Burusi and Kalibina. Read more about this study (in French).

To the administrator of the Territory of Beni, North Kivu (holding the microphone), a piglet was given by members of the local communities, as a thank you from the communities for a conservation project that included a revolving animal breeding microcredit to generate alternative income.  Burusi village is in the background of the picture, taken on 10 October 2006. The Directors of the Gorilla Organisation, Mr. Greg Cummings and Ms. Jillian Miller, are in the center of the picture.

As a result, 10 years later the Mount Tshiaberimu gorilla population doubled, they reproduced, and there are now 23 individuals, habituated to tourist visits. They attract visitors, who bring revenue to the parkland which is shared with the local authorities. Local people participate now in the protection of the park resources, and help prevent poaching. A lone star silverback gorilla, named Mukokya, has been venturing outside the national park boundaries to help shepherds in rounding up cattle. This is regarded as a successful indication of the cooperation among local communities, park management and the gorillas themselves. There have been benefits to local shepherds who look after the cattle in the surrounding community. Also there are regular meetings between park staff and the leaders and the members of the community. In July 2006, there was a large celebration of the 10 years of successful effort at Burusi, in the chiefdom of Bashu tribal people.

But the success has been interrupted by ongoing strife in eastern Congo. On 20 May 2007 a rebel group attacked the mountain of spirits, and they killed one park ranger on assignment from WWF (Mr. Nicolas Mbusa Viranzire 1972 – 2007). A woman died two days later of the shock from this terrible tragedy. They also wounded a few personnel, and took some park rangers as hostages, and looted the park stations of Burusi and Kalibina. The hostages have since been released.

The Atamato blog reports this: “Victims of the attack were Nicolas Mbusa Viranzire, 34 years old, Organizer of PEVi - Kacheche (Program of environmental Education around Virunga) WWF, who was shot dead. Madame Katabsi, a wife of a guard, died after a shock abortion caused by the attack. Jean de Dieu Vwosi, 36 years old, social Assistant of the Gorilla Organization, married and father of 6 children, was wounded in the thigh. Kambale Mulonda, 38 years old, First Class Guard, married and father of 7 children, also wounded in the leg. Alain Mali ya Mutoto, 28 years old, student finalist at the Higher Institute of rural Development of Beni, trainee in PNVi, was wounded in the shoulder.” For more information on this rebel attack see Atamato blog on 24, 26 May and 13 June 2007.

Men of the local villages perform a dance of celebration at the ceremony in October 2006 in Burusi village. These men help prevent poaching of the lowland gorillas and participate in the alternative income projects.

Please DONATE to FONDAMU to support biodiversity conservation projects, such as that of Mount Tshiaberimu in DR Congo, and to support the rural community, park rangers, and the survivors and families of those who died in the attack of May 2007.

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