Mountain gorillas bounce back from the mists
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It’s good news for mountain gorillas as the latest census from the Virunga National Park confirms the numbers have quadrupled from 30 years ago. The report confirms nearly 1,000 gorillas now live in the national park.
The increase in numbers is because of the fact that poaching has become virtually non-existent in the park in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Staff at the Virunga Foundation established in 1925 by King Albert 1 of Belgium, have over the last few years, confronted the main cause of the decline in gorillas – the poachers head on. They have adopted an almost reverse psychology by creating jobs, building schools, creating business and investing in a $22 million hydroelectric project that over the next three years will provide electricity to the area and create 1200 local jobs.
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They have also raised the salaries of the park rangers to $200 a month, a huge salary for workers in DR Congo.
This has resulted in just one reported gorilla death from poaching in the park since 2007. A remarkable achievement. Flash back to 2007 and the massacre of seven of these animals in just one summer in Bikenge and you can get the magnitude of what the conservationists were up against.
Humans share 98% of their DNA with these animals. The loss of habitat due to human population growth led to the inevitable conflict between man and gorilla, more than 100,000 people live in the same habitat as the mountain gorillas.
Eco-tourism has helped greatly in the protection of the gorillas. Tourism brings in hundreds of millions of $ into the area every year. The trade has created many jobs for the local people.
In May 2017, Rwanda increased the price of its trekking permits to $1500. However, the fascination of these allusive, huge but gentle giants does not seem to diminish as the price of the permits increases.
For now, Uganda and the DR Congo have kept their permits down to $600 and $450 respectively.
The journey back from the brink of extinction has been long and arduous the lowest point being the census 1981 with only 254 gorillas recorded. Conservationists seemed to be fighting a losing battle as poachers continued their slaughter.
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But the Virunga National Park have achieved an amazing turnaround over the last few years and with such a positive 2017 census perhaps the gorillas are finally appearing back from out of the mist.
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