US $4.2 million project to protect world heritage sites

Five national parks adversely affected by the continuing armed conflict in the DRC are scheduled to benefit from a US $4.2 million investment under a project called ‘Biodiversity Conservation in Regions of Armed Conflict’ to be implemented by UNESCO. The project, for which UNESCO has recently received a pledge of US $2.9 million from the UN Foundation is intended, among other things, to protect endangered species unique to the sites targeted. These include the northern white rhino and northern savannah giraffe of Garamba National Park; the okapi of the Okapi Faunal Reserve; the mountain gorillas of Virungas National Park; and Guaer’s Gorilla of Kahuzi-Biega National Park, a UNESCO press release stated. Salonga National Park, another Natural World Heritage site in danger, is also to benefit.

“The influx of refugees along border areas, rebel activities, banditry and increased poaching are affecting these sites adversely. The expansion of commercial hunting is also seriously undermining the hunter-gatherer way of life of the Mbuti Pygmies of the Okapi Reserve and other indigenous people who depend largely on wildlife for survival,” the UNESCO statement said. Millions of dollars invested in the parks over past decades may be lost if the sites were not protected through the current period of conflict, it added. [for further information, see
http://www.unesco.org/opi/eng/unescopress]