Beginning in 2000 with the Tayna Nature Reserve, DFGFI has been heavily involved with the creation and support of a series of community-based reserves in Congo (DRC), which are home to the endangered Grauer's gorilla and many other unique and rare species. The Tayna Reserve (now known as the Tayna Nature Reserve) was created by local chiefs and their communities, to protect their remaining forests. The success of Tayna became a model for additional community-created and managed reserves, which now help create a wildlife corridor that runs between Maiko and Kahuzi-Biega national parks.
The Tayna Nature Reserve in Congo (DRC). The Tayna Nature Reserve has now become a government-sanctioned entity and serves as the model for other community-based reserves that have formed. In the Kisimba-Ikobo Nature Reserve, for example, local communities and customary powers have been working on creating a completely protected (non-extractive) zone since 2002. They modeled their efforts after their neighbors in Tayna, and are members of UGADEC (Union of Associations for Gorilla Conservation and Community Development in eastern DRC), a federation of eight local associations working to build community-managed reserves, providing a biological corridor zone between Maiko and Kahuzi-Biega National Parks in eastern DRC. The UGADEC federation was formed by eight separate projects led by their traditional leaders who wish to protect biodiversity in reserve zones, while at the same time developing their local economies in well-defined zones outside the reserves.
Maiko National Park was officially gazetted as a national park in 1970, but was largely neglected and did not receive any international support. Since 1996, civil war in DRC prevented the few staff who had not fled the area from entering the park except on rare occasions. It is home to Grauer's gorillas and numerous other important species.
When DFGFI's work with Maiko began in 2003, there was only one park warden and a handful of unpaid, unequipped park guards. Now there are more than 140 staff, including 40 guards in each of the three sectors, who have received equipment, uniforms and training in security and biodiversity. They are provided with salaries and basic health care as well. The guards are now patrolling a significant portion of the park and have reopened a number of patrol stations. They have arrested poachers, seized illegal weapons, and located and dismantled numerous snares. In addition, we have also sponsored biological inventories of large mammals in the park.
Virunga National Park is the Congolese side of the mountain gorilla habitat that DFGFI works daily to protect and monitor in Rwanda. We now also provide support to the Congolese park authorities (ICCN) to help patrol the Congo sector of the Virungas, since there have been instances of armed attacks upon the gorillas in this area.
June 11, 2007 Press Release
Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund Helps Care for Infant Mountain Gorilla
July 30, 2007 Press Release
Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund Cares for Orphaned Gorilla Infant, Supports More Guards In Response to Latest Killings in Democratic Republic of Congo.
The eastern Congo region is a critical conservation area, rich in endemic species, many of which are threatened or endangered. In addition to including nearly the entire range of the Grauer's (eastern lowland) gorilla, it is home to many other important species. DFGFI has been involved in biological inventories, surveys and censuses of certain species and groups of species in the region, to determine their locations and conservation status. This also includes mapping, habitat classification and analysis, and other related efforts. These efforts include the first quantitative surveys of large mammals in this area since the early 1990s, and provide important baselines for further conservation and resource management. Some of the recent projects include the following:
DFGFI sponsors training seminars and workshops to help local staff learn skills in data collection and in community education. They are then able to conduct education and awareness-raising programs in the field, while collecting data.
Some of the findings from the projects above include the following:
- Significant declines in elephant populations.
- Declining and fragmenting gorilla populations, with some areas, however, showing greater numbers than previously estimated.
- Significant impact on other large mammals due to hunting and bushmeat trade, but levels still high enough to repopulate if threats are reduced.
In 2001, Tayna field staff conducted a first census of the reserve, calculating encounter rates for elephant trail, and gorilla and chimpanzee nest/trail, as well as signs of anthropogenic (human) disturbance. These same areas were re-surveyed again in 2006 for comparison. The elephant encounter rate was found to have increased 10-fold, with a three-fold increase in chimpanzee encounters and a two-fold increase in gorilla encounters. At the same time, evidence of human impact showed a seven-fold decrease. These findings, although preliminary, suggest that the conservation and protection efforts within the Tayna Reserve are meeting with significant success.
TCCB students celebrate their first graduation in 2007, with Conservation International's Russ Mittermeier.A special achievement in Congo has been the creation of the Tayna Center for Conservation Biology (TCCB), which was created by the local community and is now a government-recognized university. Located near the Tayna Nature Reserve, TCCB's curriculum is focused on conservation biology. The first set of 40 students completed coursework and final exams in 2006, with graduation ceremonies in 2007. Fifty more students completed this process in 2007. Students who receive degrees in exchange for scholarships will work in community-based reserves (as part of UGADEC) for two years upon graduation.
