Fire destroys one-third of Kagera National Park

One-third of Rwanda's Kagera National Park has been destroyed by wild fires that broke out four days ago, an official of the country's wildlife agency told IRIN on Wednesday.

"Fortunately, the fire is now under control. We are doing everything possible to stop it before the end of today," Fidel Ruzinganekwe, the executive director of the Rwanda Wildlife Agency, told IRIN on Wednesday.

He attributed the cause of the fires to the dry season and poachers, who, after killing wild animals, roast them within the park.

Ruzinganekwe said the agency had sought support from local residents, the police and the army in extinguishing the fire. Army helicopters were being used to spray the burning savannah vegetation with water, he added.

He said, however, that despite the fires, tourists were still visiting the park by Wednesday. Tourism is the country's third-highest foreign exchange earners, after tea and coffee.

The Kagera National Park, a vast tract in the east of the country, is home to wildlife such as antelopes, zebras, giraffes and elephants, as well as a significant number of bird species.

Meanwhile, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reported this week that over the last two months, 1,500 ha of prime mountain gorilla habitat had been cleared by illegal settlers in Rwanda's Virunga National Park, a World Heritage Site in northwestern Rwanda, according to evidence uncovered by the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, one of WWF's partners.

Since April, convoys of people from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have destroyed large tracts of the park, home to mountain gorillas and other endangered species, to create agricultural and pastoral land.

According to WWF, encroachment into the habitat had reduced the mountain gorillas' breeding area and limited their access to sources of food.