ACTIVITIES & PROJECTS: |
The Tayna Gorilla Reserve, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo
By
P.T. Mehlman, Ph.D.
Director of the Conservation Action Program for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
Pierre Kakule
Coordinator and Chief Warden, Tayna Gorilla Reserve
The Big Picture
In 1998, two traditional chiefs of the Batangi and Bamate peoples in the north Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ceded 900 square kilometers of tropical montane forest (60 km west of Lake Edward) for the creation of a community-based reserve. Wars, deforestation and unregulated mining were destroying their forests to the east, and the Mwami's (Grand Chiefs) had a vision to preserve the remaining intact forests and to improve people's lives.
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Overview of the Tayna Gorilla Reserve |
Two years later, on November 20, 2000, an open General Assembly was held to discuss and debate how the community would protect this land. On November 21, the official statutes were signed and ratified by village chiefs and other representatives of the local people to establish the first step in creating the only government-authorized nature reserve managed by local communities in the DRC. This finally occurred in late 2002, when the Minister of the Environment signed Ministerial Declaration 274.
Making human welfare a priority is the key to Tayna's success. Community health, and economic and education activities help to ensure that the lives of the people living around the reserves and participating in community conservation are tangibly improved.
Today, the Tayna Gorilla Reserve is home to approximately 400 Grauer's gorillas, as well as chimpanzees and another 12 species of primates. More than 80 species of mammals live in this forested area, including forest elephant, leopard, buffalo and okapi.
DFGFI in Action
The Tayna Gorilla Reserve is the flagship project of DFGFI's Community Conservation Program - a program that empowers local people to protect and preserve their heritage. Based on traditional land ownership and governance, this initiative supports local chiefs and villages to create nature reserves that are managed and maintained by communities. Once the limits of these reserves are ratified by their constituencies and approved by the DRC Ministry of Environment, their strategic placement will form a biological corridor between two the Maiko and Kahuzi-Biega National Parks. This area is rich in biological diversity and has been identified as one of the most important forest blocks in the Congo Basin.
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Map 1. Protected Areas in the Albertine Rift Region of East Africa |
Local communities were directly involved in the development of the Tayna Gorilla Reserve's management plan, land usage zoning and how the reserve is managed as a protected integral zone, almost identical to the complete protection provided by National Parks. The Reserve is operated by a Coordinator-Director who reports to a Board of Directors, composed of the original founders.
Today, 18 guides, 15 trackers and 10 administrative staff manage and operate the Tayna Gorilla Reserve. Staff recruited to be trackers or guides have been chosen from villages that are near the reserve. In several cases, hunters have been converted into trackers; in other cases, local village chiefs have been recruited as trackers. The Tayna staff elected to use the term "Guides" rather than rangers or guards; this reinforces the notion that their principle role is to "guide" rather than to police the local population, placing the emphasis on educating the local population.
DFGFI has trained Tayna guides in GPS technology, transect and data collection methodology, nest monitoring and basic techniques required for habituating gorilla groups. Tayna staff began scientific monitoring in the reserve in 2001; this continues today, with an emphasis on systematic data collection. All expeditions capture GPS points for future mapping activities, record habitat characteristics, and keep an inventory of preserved insects; they also record sightings of mammals and birds. Gorilla nest counts and trails are regularly recorded. In May 2002, the staff also participated in a line transect census of gorillas, chimpanzees, and other large mammals, which revealed that that Grauer's gorillas in Tayna are continuously distributed within an area of about 450 km2; chimpanzees are even more widespread, occurring throughout almost the entire reserve (900 km2).
Conservation Education
When Tayna staff travel to the small villages around the reserve, they conduct village meetings to educate the locals on the importance of conservation. They focus on protection of large endangered mammals, including gorilla, chimpanzee, okapi, elephant, and the owl-faced monkey.
The Tayna staff has organized several clubs for children (ages 6-18 years), which they call "Friends of the Gorilla." These clubs meet three times per week and the children are taught basic conservation education. Children have memorized the scientific and common names for the endangered mammals found within the reserve and all members have been trained so that they can visit villages as ambassadors for the reserve.
To ensure that today's conservation work is carried on by future generations, Tayna has also founded a DFGFI-supported university, called the The Tayna Center for Conservation Biology, located near the reserve. The overall goal of the TCCB is to build the capacity of the local population in protected area management, research and education by offering a three-year, university degree. Graduates of the program will be eligible for conservation positions throughout Africa, and many will be employed by the eight community reserve projects and two National Parks located within the Graueri landscape.
Community Development
The success of the Tayna Gorilla Reserve is entirely dependent on efforts to foster community development around the reserve. People engaged in what is now illegal subsistence hunting in the reserve, for example, need new and alternative economic opportunities. Even people now practicing agriculture and livestock grazing outside the reserve are in dire need of new technologies and approaches to improve their livelihoods. A new DFGFI partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) will further improve health care, provide family planning training and methods, and help local people develop sustainable and more efficient agricultural and livestock practices in communities around the reserve. DFGFI will, however, continue its critical needs programs, such as the support to an orphanage in the town of Bingi, a widow's economic development project, and now the strengthened support of local health facilities by a recent donation from Pfizer, Inc. that provided thousands of doses of needed medicines, valued at more than a million dollars.
Because Tayna is a vibrant success story, it has become a model for community-based conservation in the region and throughout DRC. In December 2002, seven more community-based reserve projects in eastern Congo joined forces with Tayna to create an umbrella association they call UGADEC (Union des Associations de Conservation des Gorilles pour le Développement Communautaire à l'Est de la République Démocratique du Congo). Their efforts will help to create a biological corridor of protected areas that will link 2 million hectares of intact forest in the region.
The Tayna Gorilla Reserve is an extraordinary effort by grass-roots Congolese conservationists to protect gorillas and preserve all life in their forests. Most importantly, it was developed and implemented during a devastating civil war, and now as the country is just emerging from this tragedy, Tayna is poised for further achievements in conservation, development and education. Here at DFGFI, we salute these Congolese heroes and their commitment to preserve their biological heritage for future generations.
This initiative is made possible by the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE), Conservation International, the Global Conservation Fund of Conservation International, and our generous members.
